The Z Chronicles
by Yonk
Summary: When a handful of elite aliens come to Earth seeking the Dragonballs and immortality, only one young man stands in their way. A descendant from an ancient and powerful race, he will attempt to fulfill his destiny and put the enemies of good to rest. AU.
1. Origin of the Species

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The Z Chronicles

A Novel by Ian Alexander Kiel

Based Upon Dragonball Z, created by Akira Toriyama

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Disclaimer:**   
Dragonball Z is copyrighted by Akira Toriyama, Bird Studios, TOEI Animation, FUJI TV, Shueisha, Nippon Clombia, and many others that I cannot name. This novel has been created with no profit in mind and was not intended for any commercial endeavor, it is for the sole enjoyment of myself, a few select friends of mine, and generally all the fans of Dragonball Z Fan Fiction. Some concepts, attack names, fight scenes, dialogue, and other miscellaneous intangibles associated with Dragonball Z were used in this novel and are property of their respective owners and copywriters as I did not create them; the species "Saiya-jin" is included in this. All other species names and characteristics of any mentioned characters are my invention and property of me as well as all attacks that are not from Dragonball Z which are easily recognizable as such. In general, all the intangibles recognizable as coming from Dragonball Z are not owned by me and I do not claim them or express them as such, any and all other intangibles are my own creations and copywrited by me.   
  
A few noteworthy inspirations for this story came from the following Flash movies located . "BRUTALITY" by McFretN; "JANENBA IS BORN", "JANENBA EP.2", and "JANENBA EP.3 by Blaive a.k.a. Sentiantopaque. Any and all quotes used served as inspiration and are attributed to their respective authors. Two songs used at the end of the story were written by and are thus property of Hironobu Kageyama (Lyrics: Yukinoja´ Mori, Vocals by Hironobu Kageyama) and Wands (Lyrics: Miho Komatsu, Vocals by WANDS), and (after being quite obviously translated into English) served as some inspiration to me as well. **  
  
To all my online friends, **

those who have inspired me to write this story,

**and any others who have ever helped my writing in anyway. **

**This one is for all of you.**

  
  
Introduction Part 1: Origin of The Species   
  
"We must hang together or else we shall hang separately." 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American Statesman and Scientist

"For it is your business if your neighbor's wall catches fire."

Quintas "Horace" Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BC), Roman Poet

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Thousands upon thousands of empty centuries ago since long before the Earth was created or even before the very formation of this galaxy, they existed. For years they had lived peacefully. While the Saiya-jin and the Kalltorran were vastly different they chose to live among each other, working to better themselves. The Saiya-jin were more focused on the perfection of their bodies but the Kalltorran chose to focus more on their minds. Both species were satisfied with who and what they were and did not concern themselves with who was better or stronger of smarter or any other such trivial things. As long as time could tell they had always been evenly matched in power, any evolutionary jump from either race would trigger an automatic jump from the other of an even amount, no more, no less. Together they were an unstoppable force, apart they would amount to nothing. No one would dare to challenge them, to do so would be suicide, they among trillions of other beings and races ruled over all.

But gradually, things changed. But very slowly, so slowly in fact, that no one even noticed. The Saiya-jin and Kalltorran became so caught up in their own collective invincibility that they began to forget exactly what had made them so. So it went on for eons, each new generation drifting further and further apart from each other. But ever so slowly. Alas, no one knew, and if anyone did know what had been happening and chose to make it public the rest wouldn't really be listening. As with all things of such a nature it would take a disaster to reunite them, but their gods had become lazy as well and time moved eternally forward without positive change.

First, friendships were divided, then: schools, then: communities, and then finally: cities. It became so that the Saiya-jin lived in one half of a planet, the Kalltorran inhabiting the other. Throughout all of this, things might have been all fine, but then they chose to do the stupidest thing possible.

They separated the Government.

The very last thing that might have held them together became unglued and, dividing up the empire right down the middle, the two humanoid races, which had been the closest of friends since the universe began, went their separate ways. Then the war against a new deadlier species which might have reunited them did happen, but just a few centuries to late. Each defended their own side brilliantly but not helping the other. The new race: the Shishkans, were too powerful to defeat alone. They were as powerful as the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran had been combined.

Eventually the Shishkan were defeated, but not after roughly half of the population of the two other races had been lost. The Shishkan retreated into their own space, vowing revenge, vowing to return. Soon the Saiya-jin began to rebuild their empire as did the Kalltorran, but instead of working together as their ancestors had intended, each blamed the other. The stress rose between them slowly, almost imperceptibly, and hatred brewed turning the universe into a combustible tinderbox. Only one spark was needed.

No one knew who struck the first blow, but the Great War happened nonetheless. The hatred each race had for the other was now unleashed, all treaties torn to shreds, all inhibitions taken back. Nothing wrong with killing each other. No regrets. Kill them all.

That is the way it went on forever it seems, no one knew that they hadn't a chance. The one thing that had stayed the same throughout all of their collected strife and apartheid was the power level of both the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran. The slaughter continued nonetheless, each side not realizing that each single death of the one of the enemy brought on an identical death of one of their own. The Saiya-jin were the first to start destroying whole worlds, using the mammoth power of their Ki. Not to be outdone, the Kalltorran caught on to this bloodthirsty method soon enough, but instead of destroying just planets the Kalltorran thought of a new concept. Without a second thought the Kalltorran, who had been the more peaceful of the two started to launch blasts into the stars of Saiya-jin systems, eradicating several planets at once in an effort to tip the scale. While the Saiya-jin traditionally had more destructive Ki, the crafty Kalltorran could shape theirs more effectively, forming Ki swords and such. With their superior mind-power and battle tactics it looked as if the Kalltorran might come out on top, that is until one of the Saiya-jin came back from an unrelated conquest of the Metamorise, a shape-shifting species. With the first cry of 'Fuuuuuu-sion HA!!' echoing from a battlefield the balance of power shifted heavily toward the Saiya-jin. The Saiya-jin called it the Fusion Dance, the Kalltorran called it Death. It took a while for the Kalltorran to master the Fusion Dance themselves, but when they did, the balance of power was once again even, and the killing went on unabated.

During this time, though nobody knew nor really cared, the Shishkan had returned at the opportune moment and were busy systematically eliminating an equal amount of Saiya-jin and Kalltorran. Soon it looked as if, with the help of the Shishkan, the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran would be driven to absolute and utter extinction.

The only thing that could possibly save them was a small group of Kalltorran known as the Pacifists. The Pacifists still believed that there could be peace between the Kalltorran and Saiya-jin, but alone they had no power and no voice to the masses. After a time, however, they managed to convince a number of Saiya-jin to join their cause, and member ship grew. It was a mammoth undertaking as they were the only group in the universe to share their beliefs and were hated and hunted equally by both races. Conditions worsened when the Shishkan focused their efforts on eliminating the Pacifists first, recognizing them as a threat. When the Pacifists began to number in the near thousands, they realized that their cause to convince the rest of their species to declare peace was not being heard. So, giving up at last, they secured a small spacecraft and headed to a far off world, third planet from it's parent star in a system of nine, it was the only one within range that was capable of harboring life. The expedition to reach this small dusty world seemed doomed from the start. The spacecraft had been sabotaged and needed to be repaired several times and though they were the most powerful and highly disciplined of their races, the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran aboard began to starve.

Just when it seemed the Pacifists' noble cause would prove to be a foolish one, they arrived on the planet they sought. The scanners had shown their new home to be a seething mass of lava and smoke and death, but they had no choice. Conditions seemed hopeless until life was created on the world and after a time things got better; the smoke cleared, and the volcanoes fell quiet. Their struggle over, the Pacifists thrived.

Back in the ever growing empire of the Shishkan, things went all downhill for the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran, and over time, they were all killed. The Shishkan had long since forgotten that the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran had in fact not gone extinct with the escape of the Pacifists. Rolling in their new found power, the Shishkan dominated their side of the Universe and couldn't care less about what the Pacifists were doing. That is until the word got out, a new power had been felt, a seemingly omnipotent one, but divided into seven parts. The Shishkan sent a expeditionary force to see what it was.

It was in fact the work of a Kalltorran, who, working with some Saiya-jin, had developed seven small rounded items with a magic all their own. Once their work on them was done they could scatter them across the world and, after waiting a year, could bring them together again and summon a being called The Eternal Dragon. The rest of the Pacifists thought it was a foolish idea, bringing together seven balls and calling forth a mythological being from another dimension that could grant wishes. They were sure it wouldn't even work. Years passed, with the Shishkan drawing ever closer and those wondrous and magical things growing ever nearer to functioning.

The day that the Dragonballs were completed the Shishkan arrived.  
  
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My insane 'Magnum Opus'...it's very strange, but I hope you all like it. Yeah, I want reviews, if I don't get any reviews...ummmm, I will still put up more but I won't be happy and my writing will suffer and get really bad! So click the box and tell me a few words. Thanks you. 


	2. History of the Kalltorraiyajin

Thank you to all the reviewers:

.

KitsuneAkai13- Heh, I am glad you are liking it. If you are lucky I might actually write more. !! Updates come fast when you review faster, thanks for being the first reviewer!

Candy the Duck- Yeah, it is weird...might be the weirdest thing I have ever come up with.

Nyberger13- Thank you! Yes, it is A/U (aren't all fanfiction kinda A/U?) and this little history, and the one coming up are just so you understand all the stuff behind our main character. By the way...you might actually meet him by the next 15 chapters...lol. Anyway, yeah, this is completely different from what I usually write, it technically doesn't even have Chibi Trunks and Goten in it (but I snuck them in there somehow, heh-heh!) so that makes it way off my norm. I am glad you like it so much, and I really like your story too.

GOTEN2003UK- Thank you, I know you love my work so much. About the wait though...it's been a long time making this story and it isn't over yet. Hopefully I can keep ahead so I don't have to put you through month-long delays...

animeprincess1452- Yes. I have been thinking about it for years... But either way I am glad you are liking it so much. Much shall be revealed in the coming chapters and stuff. Yeah. !

And now the conclusion...of the introduction!

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**Introduction Part 2: History of the Kalltorraiya-jin**

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

Robert Kennedy (1925-1968), American Politician

"He who is alone and falleth hath not another to help him up."

_Ecclesiastes (4:10), The Bible  
  
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Peace. Everlasting peace. For centuries that was all the Pacifists knew.

They had never actually fought in an active way in the Great War, but even if they had it was centuries later, they were no longer a match for the Shishkan. Or at least they would be conquered easier than the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran had been. In relative comfort on their new planet, named Terra by the high elders, the Pacifists lived well. They enjoyed their peace and solitude from the rest of the Universe, while the rest of their two races had gone utterly extinct. They had become the ultimate Utopian society, a perfect people, living in peace and mutual harmony as the entire Saiya-jin and Kalltorran once had. They had grown so close that entire families were now composed of several members of each separate species.

But that was all about to change. The Dragonballs were intended to make the life of the Pacifists easier. But they had not anticipated the Shishkan sensing the great energy of the newly created power. It took months for the Shishkan expeditionary force to arrive at Terra, but the Dragonballs were complex items that had to be precisely calibrated in order to work. After all, bringing a mile long dragon from another dimension that can grant two wishes to whomever summons it is no small feat.

On a day which time forgot the Pacifists were united in celebration, even those that frowned upon the construction of the Dragonballs were elated that they were finally completed. Celebration turned to agony as a split second after the mystical spheres were spread across the small planet there was a crash. Two-thousand Shishkan military elite poured out of a large spacecraft just miles away from the meeting place. Strictly opportunistic, the Shishkan leader saw a million of his enemy crowded on that tiny island. Raising a hand, he fired a powerful energy blast out towards the island. The High Elders never saw it coming. The blast vaporized the island, blasted a massive crater destroying most of the area, started fires across the continent, created tsunamis that wiped out coastal cities from the present-day Mississippi River Delta to the English Mainland to the coast of central Africa, and threw enough debris into the atmosphere to blacken the skies for generations to come, killing half the planet's Pacifist population in mere minutes. It was all terrific overkill, but the Shishkan leader just smirked evilly, after all, that was what his people were famous for. Was it not for a wish to find the source of the mysterious power, they would have blown Terra out of existence on sight, too much work to clean up manually, for the Shishkan were an incessantly lazy race as well.

It was going to be a year before the Dragon would be able to be summoned and as the Shishkan toured the planet killing on a whim, only one High Elder had survived and only he knew the sacred words needed to be uttered to summon the Dragon once the Dragonballs had been collected. The Shishkan didn't know this and frankly didn't care if they got anything, they were having fun blasting the planet to pieces and slaughtering the people. Somehow a year passed and the one Elder managed to gather the Dragonballs and place them in the specific pattern needed on a secluded island without being detected by the Shishkan. It was just dumb luck that one of the Pacifists didn't leak out the fact that the Shishkan leader could have made himself immortal with a wish to the Dragon, but there was no hiding that power when the Dragon streaked to the sky for the first time.

As the Shishkans were fast approaching the island above which the sky was black, the High Elder begged the dragon to destroy them, but the dragon replied that it was beyond its power. And as a bolt of energy flew at the High Elder from one of the Shishkan, he had time for one last wish. A wish that someday, somewhere, a power would arise that could bring an end the evil Shishkan.

The dragon granted this and then asked for a second wish, the blast hit the Elder, and with his dying breath he asked the dragon if the Dragonballs would no longer emit energy so the Shishkan could not sense them and make a terrible wish. The light of the Dragon then faded and the Dragonballs scattered across the seven winds. Realizing that he could have anything he wanted, the Shishkan leader ordered his force to forget about killing and turn over every rock on the planet to find the Dragonballs. And that may have been just the break the Pacifists were looking for.

It was going to be a long time before the Shishkan would get their blood-stained hands on the Dragonballs. Being a lazy race, they took their time finding the Dragonballs. Generations passed; but being a people that could live for millenniums on end, the Shishkan still searched at their leisure. To them a year was as a day. No one was or is really sure if the wish asked to the Dragon made any difference, but in the darkest parts of Terra a new species was silently being created. Without much choice the Saiya-jin and Kalltorran finally came together and propagated, fulfilling the final destiny of their races. It was never an accepted practice but in short, it happened, and the first of the new species began to be born at a slow but steady rate. At first they were cast off as mutants, half Kalltorran, half Saiya-jin, it was a joke at best. Not soon after, geneticists cruelly placed a marker in their DNA, so that one of their fingers would always have an identifying symbol. This way, they could be told apart from the rest. But it came to be obvious that those children being born possessed an incredible power. It was just like a Kalltorran and Saiya-jin team - strength, speed, agility, intelligence, and an awesome will to survive and save those held closest to the heart all perfectly balanced and put into one perfect being. They were the last hope.

Time went by and then an extraordinary boy was born to bi-species parents. It was clear that he was to be the leader of the new race, now known to all as the Kalltorraiya-jin. All except the Shishkan, they still couldn't care less. Twenty-five years later that same boy was a man, and his ever and eternally increasing power level had a few convinced that he was destined to be the first Super Kalltorraiya-jin, a legend in the eyes of the rest, whom he led. At about the same time the Shishkan were finally ready to summon the Dragon. Never possessing a really good memory, over centuries time the Shishkan had completely forgotten how the Dragonballs had to be arranged, much less what the hell the password was.

So it was bound to happen, the final defining war between the Shishkan and the Kalltorraiya-jin was set to change the entire order of the universe.

They fight was brilliant on both sides, but despite all hopes for the side of good, the Shishkan were coming out on top in no time at all. Fed up with the whole war, the Shishkan leader blasted a massive hole in Terra, forming a moon and killing all inhabitants. In that moment, all the Pacifists were killed, all but one.

His life erased, his friends, family, and children all murdered, his fury rose and that was it. With a blast of Ki that made the heavens tremble, the legend was fulfilled and the twenty-five year old leader blasted into Super Kalltorraiya-jin and set out to destroy the few remaining Shishkan. Every fiber in his being was filled with endless energy, his strength enhanced one-hundred fold with the transformation, and his power grew beyond anything ever seen. The Shishkan never saw it coming, with a flash of green light and a small shining of rage-filled glowing red eyes, the entire expeditionary force of Shishkan, who had nearly destroyed Terra, had killed all its people, and had exterminated the Kalltorraiya-jin, were torn to bits. That would have been enough for anyone else, but the young man wanted to ensure this could never happen again. At more than ten times the speed of light, the last surviving Pacifist and first Super Kalltorraiya-jin streaked toward the Shishkan homeworld to finish what he had started, to pacify no more.

The sound had to be the worst, like on Terra, only louder and even more blood-curdling, were the screams that arose from the Shishkan homeworld. Justified in his actions or not, the Kalltorraiya-jin's deeds that day would disgust all. It was said that it was because of the transformation, his mind was twisted into almost pure evil, with a goal to enforce what was right, and nothing, not even the gods could stand in his way. And it only took one day. Men, women, children, if they were Shishkan, they were killed. The stronger the Shishkan that took on the challenge, the faster he killed them. And with an almost sick smile the proud last of the Kalltorraiya-jin shot out into space and blasted a glowing red ball towards the planet. It was unlike the rest of his energy blasts, which were green, this one was red and it screamed evil as it entered the atmosphere of the Shishkan planet.

When the ball hit it did not destroy the planet directly, it had been designed to kill slowly and painfully. A wave of energy swept across the planet's surface maiming each living thing it passed before burning what was left. Then, after a few tense seconds, the energy became too much for the planet to absorb, and, starting from the impact point, the planet folded outwards before imploding. There was a short pause before at last the planet was ripped apart in a titanic outward explosion. The Kalltorraiya-jin smiled again, that same evil smile, and fired a similar blast to the nearby star before leaving the system at top speed. He turned and watched as the star went supernova and blasted waves of death toward the system's planets, destroying them instantly and effectively erasing trillions of Shishkan lives in seconds. As the wave of energy approached him, he hovered there. The first wave passed and shook him to the bone; powering up an energy shield he shrugged off the rest like hot water. Then as the last of the energy shot past him his green hair faded to brown and his red eyes closed, reopening as their original black. His power faded and the Kalltorraiya-jin, regaining his normal mindset, finally realized the whole scope of what he had done. Evil or not, they did not need to all be slaughtered, he thought, and the whole weight of two entire lost and destroyed civilizations found life on his shoulders. Feeling that his horrible work was done, with a tortured mind, he left for what remained of his own blood-stained and blackened world.

A few years later he re-reached Terra and was disappointed to find that there was no humanoid life, but thrilled to find indications in primitive life-forms that life would, indeed, triumph. Certain that something had to have remained of his species he spent the rest of his days searching for his people.

After decades he finally gave in, he finally realized that no Kalltorraiya-jin except him had survived. He looked up to the sky one day and felt a small power signature. Recognizing it as Shishkan he was horrified when he knew then that the evil Shishkan had not all been killed that day he had lost all inhibitions. But he was too old to fight. He finally knew what had to be done, he called forth the Dragon using the words his father and his father before him had passed down and wished that a new race of humanoids would be born on the torn planet, Terra. The Dragon asked for a second wish and was asked to create a being which would finally and absolutely destroy the evil which was the Shishkan, mirroring the very words that had brought him to existence. As the Dragon left the world again the Kalltorraiya-jin man, too old to press on, hoped that the Dragon would come through and bring to life a being that could destroy the Shishkan, before they returned to Terra. He was certain they would, their thirst for immortality was too great.

It was over for him, and, on a secluded mountain top, he slid into death at last. And as his hand, the hand that had nearly destroyed the Shishkan, fell onto the cold, hard ground, the small distinguishing symbol was visible on his left index finger. A symbol that would arise on the hand of another when the Earth was again threatened.

A symbol, that would never be forgotten.

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Thank you all for reviewing, just keep that up and you have made me very happy! Next up, the Prologue...finally you get something else besides ancient history! 


	3. Reincarnation

Thank you to all reviewers:

animeprincess1452- Yeah, lots'a thinking. I was hoping it wasn't too detailed, but I think I did okay based upon what everyone is saying. Oooohhhh, so you like it more than my chibi fics? Yeah, it is very interesting, can't argue with you there. Glad you like it.

Candy the Duck- Yes...still very weird. About the weirdest thing I have ever written. I can e-mail you the symbol if you would like. It's easier than describing it.

KitsuneAkai13- Ooooo! So many things you are doing...I am amazed you can be so happy! It seems that you really like this story, or something like that. !

GOTEN2003UK- Heh, ancient history...literally. Yeah, he is dead...but hopefully his little wish will do something and everything will be better. Glad you like it so much.

This one is very short, but very important. Read it carefully, preferably twice....

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**Prologue: Reincarnation**

"A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step." 

Chinese Proverb

"I had always thought that, when I was born and the cards of life were handed out to the players, the cruel hand of Fate dealt me a Royal Flush. Now, I am left holding all the winnings with nothing to buy and nobody with which to share."

Ian Kiel (1986- ), FanFiction Writer and Medical Student

  
  
I had always wondered what it meant, exactly. That strange marking, etched perfectly as if in ink on the index finger of my left hand. In the very beginning, before I knew, I had thought it might have been some kind of dynastical bullshit. That it was the mark of my family, the crest of the Threshards, whichever way one wishes to put it. It could have been some kind of marking indicating royal blood or perhaps immortality that ran in my family. 

But immortal people just don't die, my father did. Before he was cremated I got one final look at his left-index finger, but as it was like all the thousand times before, an otherwise healthy finger...but no mark. And perhaps a little crispy from burning car fuel, a little morbid but, alas, he did not mean that much to me anyway.

Throughout grade school and junior high I searched every resource I could get my little hands on. My search was in vain, I could find nothing resembling The Symbol. Yes, that is what I shall call it "The Symbol" nice and ominous sounding, but I mustn't digress. I was denied the knowledge of what it was, each and every time. My mother once said it looked vaguely like something from the original Planet of The Apes movie but I never looked much into it. I asked everyone willing to listen what they thought of it, but they would usually make some crack about an insane tattoo. At the time I last cared to ask I was only 12, much to young to get one even if I had wanted it. My age now doesn't really matter, stick around and maybe you will find out why. My parents too, I inquired, they swore that when I was born it was already there. They said that the doctors tried to remove it, but it just kept coming back, so they gave up. At that moment I was thoroughly convinced that they had to be mental hospital escapees. Especially when they mentioned some sort of tail that '...thankfully only grew back twice.' I was fed up, I knew they were lying, they also said something about my having levitated a baby bottle when I was a couple weeks old, but I hadn't really been listening. So, being knowledgeable about the regenerational capabilities of normal human fingertips, I cut it off. But after it healed, the dammed marking was right back where it was originally and that convinced me at last I couldn't get rid of it. But the true meaning still eluded me, I could find nothing in an even remote resemblance and I became convinced I was being lied to somehow.__

Then, all at once, my luck seemed to change. It was on a pointless 8th grade field trip to an archeological dig of sorts one day. I stumbled over a piece of rock half buried, and, after having fallen on my face, I got up to get a good look at it.

There it was. The same damn symbol as on my finger!

I could have died. I ran it over to one of the archeologists to ask what it was, but before I could get the words out of my mouth...the stupid thing crumbled to dust in my trembling hands. I asked what it could of been and got a dry response, 'Prolly sum peece of shit from abowt tain millyun yeers agou', as far as I can remember it. Well, I guess it could have been worse, after all that was the day I started hearing voices in my head. But not so fast, it was actually just one voice and just one word. After a few weeks I could start to make it out, but just barely. Kalltorraiya-jin. That was it, just four small syllables. Sounded a bit funny, but somehow I knew the correct spelling.

I knew the voice and The Symbol were somehow linked, but how? And why me? I thought I would never know, why, but now I do. This is the story of how I found out.

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This one was a bit short, but the action will finally start in the next part...which is actually the first chapter. Oh, and about that symbol, if you want a picture of what it looks like, just ask and I will e-mail it to you. Please review, thank you. 


	4. Beginnings

As usual, I have 'many' people to thank for reviewing the last chapter:

animeprincess1452 - Yep, that's one persistent symbol alright... Well, maybe you don't think I will lose readers...but I am getting fewer and fewer reviews. It's not fair!

KitsuneAkai13 - Yes! Of course you can take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive The Symbol! That's right! The one and only...that will be three easy payments of $19.95!!!

GOTEN2003UK - No need for you to get angry, here is the update that you want so dang bad!! !!!

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**Part one – Finding Destiny**

"True nobility lies not in being superior to another man, but in being superior to one's previous self."

_Hindustan proverb_

"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything, or to doubt everything. Both ways save you from thinking."

_Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), Polish-American Linguist_

**Chapter 1: November 16, 2001 –Beginnings**

Time – the one thing that drives man's life more than any others; the one thing that all men desire more of, without regard for status or wealth. Throughout the ages, time has been what people have been born and have died by, and have lived every second in between trying to make more of and wasting it nonetheless. Time is one constant, apart from all others, that alters its passing according to the level of activity in man's brain, speeding up or slowing down respectfully. Hence the phrase, 'Time flies when you are having fun.' Time is one philosophical and physical concept that has been a part of the human psyche from the days of Galileo and Newton and their theories of gravity and the rate at which black cannonballs fall, all the way to Einstein and Hawking and their theories of the velocity of particulate matter and black holes. It is even said that time alters its speed around gravity wells and while an object traverses the speed of light. But of all the things I know about time and what it does as I sit in my last period class I only wish one thing of it at the present moment.

I wish time would go a little fucking faster.

Having to listen to a math teacher drag on endlessly about algebraic concepts that have no use to anyone in life has to be the worst part of being me. That and knowing from the teachings of Dr. Spock that, 'having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.' Perhaps that voice in my head could give me some clues to my pointless existence, but I ask too much of its endless chanting in my head of _'Kalltorraiya-jin'_. I don't think it knows how to say anything else, much less how to express concepts in my reality.

The sudden sound of the school bell ringing brought me out of my musings and a smile curled on my face as I realized that the torture was over. I slung my backpack over my back and picked up my book, speed walking out the door before I could be dismissed and ignoring all complaints from my teacher as I did so. Nearly bowling over a few freshmen as I continued at my normal pace, which was about four times as fast as normal people, I reached my locker. A few expert turns of the tumbler and I had it open. I inserted my book and closed it with a single finger resulting in a loud bang that shook the wall. I gathered several strange looks, but I didn't care, I had more things on my mind than those worthless sheep could conceptualize. The few stragglers still around the bike rack moved off as I walked towards them, they were probably afraid of me.

I think I have always known there was something different about me. Just the way I act and the way I am always one step ahead of my peers and the way I am the greatest genius this world has ever seen. Since first grade I have been this way, teaching the teachers and astonishing people with my brains, as well as annoying them with my endless hyper state. First I though I was a sort of android, made from steel and strong enough to give superman a run for his money. Now I am convinced I am from another planet, at least, that's what my 'friends' say, I can't be sure.

My attention was momentarily diverted as I passed the football field and caught a glimpse of quite possibly the most beautiful sight ever. About a dozen cheerleaders kicking high in an after school practice session, just fine to my perfect vision. Catching the eye of the one in the back, Katharine, I really wished that she wasn't one of those girls that insisted on being 'just friends'. Not that I really minded, I could have had her a long time ago, being that I had known her for years, but I wasn't that kind of guy. If there was anything I hated more than boys trying to get laid with every girl they met, it was those who tried to do so with my Katharine. Much as I thought I liked her, she treated me as an older brother, and I had to do my best to protect her from such things.

The sun glinted peacefully over the windshield of a car as I dodged the speeding half-ton of metal indifferently on my bike. Some days I wonder how close I come to getting killed in the five miles of streets to my home, but then I thought, _you're bullshitting yourself, Jake, you can't die!_ I dodged more cars and then zipped around a corner of an intersection right before the light changed, scraping my foot across the ground intentionally to stabilize myself as I rounded the turn. Finally getting to the home stretch, I waved to a passing car containing my arch-nemesis – David. Actually he was my best friend for years, but we compete all the time; not that it matters of course, I always win and he's about a year younger anyway. Easy prey.

**. . .**

The sound of a fist hitting delicate flesh broke the relative silence of the small backyard. It was quickly followed by a grunt of pain and then a thump of David's rear end hitting the ground as his feet were swept out from under him.

"I think you should be practicing more, you're getting weak!" I said as I directed a slow kick to his exposed gut.

"I'm sorry Jake," David shot back, "but I just can't keep up with your psycho martial arts skill!"

I paused briefly and that was all David needed, he blocked my next punch and spun me towards the dirt. But I recovered quickly and kicked out, sending him into the old oak tree behind my 5,000 year old house with a light crack.

"David, you know as well as I do that I have never taken a martial art in my life," I said slowly as he stood back up.

"Well I dunno, you used techniques from several Eastern fighting styles; I guess it's just in your blood, Jake," he responded, giving a shrug.

My eyes moved quickly to my finger, the ever-present symbol almost glowing in its own obvious presence.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a shrill opossum shriek – my mother.

"Jacob Alexander Threshard, will you get in here and help me set the table!" she trilled loud enough to wake the dead.

_Oh god I wish she would quit calling me that, _I thought.But it was too late, David was already laughing.

"You should get everyone to call you that at school; what a name, it's a crack up!" David chuckled.

"You're asking for it, you shouldn't laugh at me," I said, feeling the rage already building inside my thin frame.

"I'm sorry," David said, still laughing. "I can't help it."

Well neither could I because before David knew what was happening a punch in the jaw sent him sailing ten feet into the garage door.

_Shit! _I thought. _Why does that always happen when I get pissed at something? _I looked up and saw David slumped against the garage, a thin stream of blood trickling down his chin. _I hope I didn't break his jaw, again. I would check him but...I can already sense he's alive._

I decided to leave him there; he would wake up in a few hours. It was, after all, his fault that it had happened. Still I wondered why that rage arose, causing me to almost involuntarily break stuff, including people, at some times. I shrugged, and with a small sigh walked to my house and a prospective dinner.

**. . .**

"Honestly, Jake," my mother said, drying a dish, "I don't understand why you two fight so much if you are such great friends."

It seemed I had told her too many times already but she wouldn't leave me alone all night if I didn't tell her again.

"It's called sparring," I explained. "And there is rarely any..." – I looked out the kitchen window to the backyard, where David was just starting to stir – "...permanent damage. So you don't need to worry. I swear mom you get crazier every day, and-"

The sudden sound of the voice with a single chant of _'Kalltorraiya-jin'_ broke through my mind and I immediately forgot what I was saying.

"Uhh...I...," I faltered, struggling to say something.

"Who's crazy now, at least I don't stop in mid sentence and forget what I was...," she started, but I was halfway up the stairs already. "...going to say," she finished.

I opened the door to my horribly claustrophobic bedroom and stepped inside, nearly breaking my neck falling over mother dearest's vacuum cleaner. I picked it up and with little effort tossed the heavy machine into the hall closet and shut the door with a flick of my finger. _It's damn convenient being so strong sometimes! _I thought, before shutting the bedroom door and sitting on the edge of my bed, anticipating the creak of the bedsprings even before they came. I decided to meditate as was my custom before bed, but as per custom I had barely started when the familiar muted voice came over my mind and repeated: _'Kalltorraiya-jin'_.I came out my meditative trance in an instant and thought for a moment about it.

It was so strange, I had been hearing that voice almost ten times each day and every time I tried to meditate for almost 3 years and I was still convinced I wasn't insane in the least. Still I wondered why it was incapable of saying anything else. "Why can't you say anything else?" I asked quietly of the air.

_'Find the Dragonballs' _came immediately following my request.This was too much; I had heard a lot of ridiculous things in my life, but even from a crazy voice in my head I had never heard anything this odd.

"What?!" I practically screamed. "Find the Dragon's balls?! What the hell, you mean some poor dragon...?" I said, but was cut off by the voice as it went on in monotone in my head.

_'Dragonballs!'_

"Oh." I said, getting into bed. "What are those?"

_'You will know.'_

**. . .**

All I remember is waking up frightened like I had never been before. All I knew was that my alarm clock had not yet gone off and it read just after five-thirty in the early morning, my mother already gone. The voice had said something along the lines of: 'Use this as some sense of inspiration...' and I was immediately rammed by a sense of pain I had never felt before for all my life.

My eyes clouded over and I found myself floating above the Earth and I could see explosions below. _It's a trick,_ I thought,_ that bastard's screwing with my mind...this can't be real. _But, try as I might, it didn't go away, it kept coming. Wave after wave of pain ran through me as I was thrust forward in this bizarre vision, careening over the skies and watching helplessly, as though my eyes were glued open. There were sirens, explosions, strange figures darting back and forth and buildings in flames, I could do nothing but watch. I landed on the ground, light as a feather, and I looked around me, in a fog, like a dream, barely able to perceive people running in all directions and then blood sprayed me from one torn in half by a dark shape that vanished as quickly as it came. I wiped off the blood from my face and looked at my feet, seeing a newspaper, stained red and marred with black footprints. But I could still read the date in the corner.

December 3rd, 2002.

Impossible.

I can't see the future, can I?

I looked up again, there were more explosions, and the sound rose up out of the melee to shake my mind as I recognized it as screaming. Helpless screaming; they were all dying around me. Thousands of them were dying.

Even children were dying!

I couldn't take it, I felt this as if it was happening to me, all that pain somehow channeled right to me and I writhed in agony just as it all ended and I was standing back in my room in the present.

It was too much for one boy to handle. I stumbled to the bathroom and was sick on the floor, and then I fainted. When I came to I felt numb.

_'Want to feel more of this? You want to feel this again multiplied a billion times over?' _the voice echoed in my head. '_There will be far more pain, sooner than you think, this is just like a little preview. When those aliens come the devastation will span this entire planet! You have to stop them.' _

"What aliens? Why...? What's going on?" I poured out weakly from my raw throat, unable to comprehend what I had felt.

_'The Dragonballs'_ the voice repeated.

I was scared, deathly scared. Not because of the seeming threats from the voice, not from what I had seen, but that now along with being told I could faintly feel an essence of pure evil approaching the Earth. My eyes drifted to the symbol on my finger. What was happening to me? What does it all mean?

Why do I have to be the one to save them all?!

_No, _I thought, _there are seven and one half billion people on this planet, that's a lot of weight to shoulder. I can't do this._

I lay there for a time, crying from the pain and wishing it would all go away and I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. Staggering to my room, I curled up with my extra pillow on my bed and inserted my thumb childishly into my mouth, fresh tears pouring down my face and my mind ran circles.

_I don't want to be a hero. Not me. I can't do it. That's not what I do – I...I mean I'm not good enough. I can't just...what do I – why do I...? It's not fair; this isn't my fault, why must I be the one to...suffer?_

Sticking my thumb deeper into my mouth, bringing a slight comfort to me, and closing my eyes, squeezing out more tears, I wished I could just be a little kid again. I was happy then; I didn't have to worry about high school or what I was going to do in life or my...my...my destiny. I just didn't care about anything at all and it was easy to not think then, but I had to now. I cried on, wishing again it would all go away and I would open my eyes to find myself ten years old again, but to no avail. I only succeeded in eventually crying myself to sleep.

When I awoke, I felt better, especially since I hadn't had to bother with school today, but it still hurt. I decided at once that I couldn't stop my destiny. It was only what I was and if that symbol on my finger meant I had to find some balls and then save the world with no reward, so be it.

"Well I guess I better find those stupid Dragonballs soon lest that voice in my head has a dammed fit!" I muttered to the air.

_'No, you can't search for the Dragonballs-'_

"What do you mean I can't-?"

_'Quiet!' _the voice thundered in my head, sending a shock of pain through my skull and flinging me to the ground painfully. I clapped my hands over my ears instinctively to try and keep out the deafening roar, with no effect whatsoever. _'You must keep watch, but you can't _go_ to the Dragonballs, they will come to you. You must just make sure that you don't miss them when they do show up. And if you don't keep alert, the Dragonballs will pass you by and I can't answer for the possible consequences. Those Dragonballs must be found, the fate of the Earth rests on your success' _and the voice, which probably had never said so much at one time, promptly shut up, and let me think at last.

This left me with a little to ponder, and I sat down to reflect on the day's events, among other things. I thought about that for a little while, before falling onto the bed and deciding to rest my eyes. But as these things usually happen, I felt myself drifting calmly to sleep in a short amount of time.

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Yet another addition to the weirdness chronicles...I hope you enjoy my character's little insanity trip. Who knows what happens next? Please review.


	5. Dragonballs

Thanks again to my reviewers:

KitsuneAkai13- Oh, shipping and handling…? Hmmm, I never thought about that. Well, I think whoever pays for my AOL service can take care of that. I am really glad you think that Jake is so cool, mostly because he is partly based on me. So that means I am cool, oh yeah! !!! Oh, and he will wish for something after he finds the Dragonballs…that will take time. Thanks for the review.

animeprincess1452- I am going to be looking for the Dragonballs?! Well, I wasn't so sure that people knew I was crazy like that, thanks for letting me in on that. Don't listen to the voice…he tells you to do weird stuff…

GOTEN2003UK- ROTFL! Well, I am glad you are liking the story so much, it's just that I am afraid if you really did glue yourself to your seat… Oo !!!

Curiously…I seem to be losing reviewers… First I had five reviewers, then four, now only three for the last two chapters. Strange?

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Chapter 2: November 17, 2001– Dragonballs

My eyes drowsily opened, and I looked around with blurry vision, wiping some sleep-sand out of my eyes. Then I saw something that was a very bad sign on a school day: sunlight. At first I didn't even register the sensory information afforded by that realization and instead snuggled deeper into my bed and wrapped my arms tighter around my extra pillow. Falling helplessly into microsleep, I dozed for a few minutes and then awoke again a few minutes later, still feeling some aches from yesterday. But then my eyes snapped open and I burst into full wakefulness, finally glancing at the clock.

"Shit!" I cried, reading the display, and realizing that I had thirty minutes to get my lazy ass to school, and my mother just happened to be at work.

"God being in high school is such a pain," I said quietly whilst falling over trying to put on my pants and shoes at the same time. I finished and was out of the door less than two minutes after waking up.

I raced out the door almost forgetting my stupid backpack; not that there's anything in the damn thing but paper and a couple of books.My mother always said that I was a hopeless slacker but I didn't really pay that much attention. After all I was in all top level classes and constantly making my peers - no that's the wrong word...classmates - look like fools and my teachers sometimes as well. But my mother was still a bit crazy in my opinion. I brought out my bike and took off, taking a few milliseconds to strap on my helmet. Not that I could possibly get hurt, I might as well be indestructible, but there was no point in getting arrested for it.

_God, oh God why do _I _always have to be late to school, and for Satan's sake my favorite class is first period, I'll be glad next year when I'm a Senior and I don't have any classes that I have to care about, _I thought.

"Mother," I called out to the street rushing past as I pedaled down to school like a madman. "Why can't you just _tell_ me what to do?"

I have no interests really and even though I have the IQ of a genius – err, Super Genius – I don't like to actually _do_ anything, fighting maybe, and eating, but nothing academic.

'You could be a doctor!' my mother had once said. 'Yeah,' I had responded, 'and if my patients didn't heal right I could just tear them to pieces! I'd make a wonderful doctor, just don't piss me off or else I will put you out of your misery stat!'

"Well," I said, "at least I don't have to worry about - what the - ?!"

CRASH!

. . .

The dust settled and I looked around me; I wasn't surprised that the crash left me unhurt, but the bike was in less than good shape. The handlebars were bent and one pedal was...curiously missing. Along with that, there was some grass in the chain and plenty of dirt on the whole thing to complete the look.

"Remind me to tell my mother that having a black cat cross your path really _is _bad luck, especially if you're on a bike and you swerve into some bushes to avoid it," I said while picking myself off the dirt by the sidewalk.

Actually, I was trying a new anger-management technique, laughing at what life throws at you instead of getting angry. It wasn't working.

"My bike better not be broken...," I stopped, anger cracking through the surface of my artificial calm.

"SHIT!!!" I screamed, sitting up in the clump of foliage, and swinging my fist into a nearby metal telephone box.

There was a metallic crunch and the box folded around my arm nanoseconds before the top half sheared away and clattered to the pavement. I glanced in mock-wonder at the blood dripping out of a small cut on my arm before licking it off, savoring the light iron taste.

Well at least the anger doesn't last long, I thought._ It just persists until I end up breaking something._

A police car drove by silently, the officer thankfully not noticing the half shredded telephone box lying on the street. I raised my head out of the bushes and started to push myself up. I looked at my watch - 7:02, this was getting ridiculous. But as I set my hand on the ground for leverage, it slipped and I fell back, my head banging on something surprisingly hard.

"Damn, now what the hell was that?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

I sat up and reached back to where my head had fallen, rooting around in the plants for who knew what. After a few seconds I decided that it had just been hard dirt, but something pressed me to keep looking and I suddenly touched something. My fingers curled around it and I lifted it up, revealing an orange colored, glass sphere a little larger than a tennis ball. As I turned it over I noticed three red stars hanging in the center.

"What the...?"

'THAT is a Dragonball' the voice suddenly said.

"Uhh...," I started, a bit flustered that the implement with which I was going to save the universe was this little piece of shit that I could probably make in a glass blowing shop. "This...can't be a Dragonball...," I said "Is it?"

'Yes'

Well I wasn't going to take that crap anymore, so I raised my hand and threw the ball to the asphalt as hard as I could at a speed which would probably shatter anything made by man. There was a crunch and I raised an arm to protect my face from flying glass shards...which never came.

"How did it...?" I said; eyes widening as I picked up the ball out of the miniature crater it made in the blacktop and examined it.

It wasn't even scratched.

"That's impossible!" I cried.

There was just no way a piece of glass wouldn't have broken from something like that, things just weren't that way. I decided to find out what it was later and I stuck it into my backpack, speeding off for school before I was too late.

. . .

After school, I found myself doing nothing important, so I decided to take a slight detour to the science wing. My Chemistry teacher from last year was pretty smart, he would be able to tell me what strange element this was made from.

"Well, I'm sorry, Jake, but I can only say it's some kind of glass that has been made by a process that makes it extra strong," the short man said, turning it over in his hands and shutting off the burner he had been trying in vain to melt it with, "but no glass is impervious to damage."

I looked out the open door and saw the janitor walking past. _Hmm, inspiration strikes, _I thought.

"Hey Gus!" I yelled to him, tossing the Dragonball to his feet, "Break that, I dare you to try! It can't be broken!"

Always up to _any _challenge he whipped out his trusty sledge hammer from the nearby cart and crashed it on top of the ball like a mad samurai with a katana. This time there was not a crunch, but a miniature explosion that broke the head of the sledge hammer into dust and small pieces. The janitor looked like he had died and gone to Hell for not being able to break the thing and as for the teacher, he looked like a college professor that has just found out that the entire _concept _of science is a load of shit.

"Thanks guys," I said heading out the door with the ball, "see you later."

The dazed Chemistry teacher finally regained his resolve and approached me. "Uhh...Jake I would appreciate if you could give me that...thing, until tomorrow so I can do some more tests, and I'll tell you what it is in the morning," he said pensively.

With little thought I placed the ball in his hands and walked toward the bike rack. "'I'm sorry Jake; I don't know what it is.'" I said sarcastically under my breath, "'Prolly sum peece of shit from abowt tain millyun yeers agou.'"

'Actually you are probably right.'

"Oh, shut the hell up," I said, grinning.

There was only one bike left, and it was probably the oldest one on the planet. I sighed and unlocked it, heading home thinking: _not that there is anyone who would steal it anyway._

. . .

When I arrived back at school the following morning, I was genuinely expecting that teacher to tell me he wasn't able to come up with anything. Instead I got that response followed with news that my Dragonball was no longer in his possession.

"What do you mean you sent it to some scientific research facility in Boston?!" I screamed at him, hopelessly frightening the freshmen in his first period Chemistry class.

They seemed to be looking at me nervously as if to say I might pull out a rocket launcher and start blasting everyone, starting with their teacher.

"Well," he said nervously, "I couldn't figure out what it was so I figured they could. It should be sent back within another week."

I told him he didn't need to concern himself with it, while telling him under my breath that he could cram that Dragonball right up his ass when it came back. I didn't care anymore, I had lost it now and the voice wasn't helping matters by staying silent for once.

"Sorry I worried you, Jake," he said, but I was gone already.

. . .

"And so we trace the history of women's rights, economic patterns, and foreign policies in the United States with these papers," drawled my History teacher.

I was going to die of boredom...this was just horrible. First my bike's brakes fail on the way to school, then my dammed Chemistry teacher sends my ball away, now I have to suffer through more of this pointless shit.

_So, _I thought, hoping the voice could hear what I was saying in my head, _what now? I don't suppose you are gonna have me steal a plane ticket to Boston...are you?_

The voice stayed silent and the class dragged forth for a time until, presently, it spoke: _'You know, you are a dammed fool,' _it said.

_What? I didn't do anything - _I tried to counter but was again cut off.

_'Don't you know outgoing mail isn't sent out until afternoon?' _it interjected, turning on the light bulb above my head instantly.

_Of course!_I raised my hand and waited for the teacher to finish his speech while formulating a plan for infiltrating the mail room in the office.

"Yes," he said, noticing me, "what is it Jake?"

"Umm," I said. "Can I go to the bathroom?"

He looked at me with a tone of anger before going on: "Yes, Jake, you have the capability to use the facilities at any time. However, my permission and not your capabilities should be the subject of your question."

"Sir, _may_ I use the facilities," I said, hiding the sarcasm in my voice as I reworded my question to better fit his insane demands.

"Yes you may, Jake," he responded like a robot, "don't let me catch you using slang again."

I walked out the door as fast as I could and then trudged silently toward the front office, hiding briefly behind a post from a passing security guard when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my hall pass.

"Hey you!" I heard a deep voice say. "Where do you think you are going without a hall pass?!"

"I can explain," I started, turning around in fear.

"I was just - DAVID YOU ASS!!" I finished as I recognized my friend.

"Ditching class again, Jake?" he asked.

"No _I'm _going to the office to get something!" I said in a teasing voice "Where are _you _going without a pass?"

"Oh, nowhere, Jake?" he said, suddenly looking confused as I vanished. His confused look persisted, all the way to detention, as the security guard dragged him away. I stepped out of the bushes as soon as they were gone, and quickly slid into the office doors.

_Man, _I thought, _this is like a secret service mission! _

"Hi, how may I help you?" asked the secretary lady as I walked in.

"Well," I said, faking a teacher's pet attitude while pulling out some folded papers from my pocket, "I need this stuff copied; can you do it for me? I wouldn't want to have to go back there since I'm not allowed to."

She smiled sickeningly sweet at me and told me she would do that for 'such a good young man' in a sugary voice before disappearing into the back of the office to copy the documents I handed her.

_Alright, _I thought, _showtime!_

I ducked quickly around the corner, crawling on my hands and knees past the desk of one of the assistant principals before mentally calculating the length of the connecting hallway. I rounded off my result and counted the heavy footfalls of the wandering security guard, once he reached seventy-two, I knew he was at the end of the hall. I looked to check and saw him go around the corner as expected. Running quickly down the hall, I then sat myself under a small desk and held my breath as the guard entered the other side of the passageway. I counted seventy-two again and then got back up, turning to the door at my right and thanking God that the locks were ancient as I picked it with the two paperclips from my pocket and stepped into the mail room, closing the door behind me as the guard passed by once more.

Flicking on the light, I poked around the various boxes and packages, looking for one addressed to Boston. I located one that had the right address, but it was about a 3 foot cube and whatever was inside couldn't weigh much more than the cardboard. I cut through the packing tape with a thumbnail and opened it; reaching inside the foam peanuts, my fingers closed around a familiar spherical shape. My mouth curled into a smile and I lifted out the Dragonball with the three stars inside it, turning it around and watching the light play across it's surface.

I pocketed it in my spacious cargo shorts and I then noticed a pile of letters on a desk right next to me. I picked them up and grinned broadly as I noticed the name on the return address.

Mr. Takoyaki, only the greatest bastard in the world...and I had him for my Algebra class...unlucky him. My eyes drifted to the paper shredder before realizing it would be too noisy and I tried to think of something else.

I wondered what the letters were and I decided at once to leave a little present for the mail guys along with the foam peanuts scattered about. I opened the letters and took them out of the envelopes, reaching into the desk for a pair of scissors and a glue stick. About a minute later I set the envelope in the middle of the mess with the words cut from the letters glued on to it spelling out a ransom-note style message:

Yo u g**uy**s _Sho_ uld bee **f** up se **CU** rity .. . BE t t er **luck** _nex_ T time **. ..** in catch IN**G** :

The K_all_ tor**rai ya** - j in !! **!**

****

I shut off the lights and locked the door carefully to avoid letting the guard hear it before opening the window and jumping out of it with ease. Looking around to insure the area in the back of the office was abandoned, I picked up a sizable rock and heaved it into the open window, listening for the crash and the yells of the people inside about a security breach.

Sprinting back to my class, I laughed at my own genius and thought about the stupidity and predictability of those people. I slowed down and walked back into my class with a Dragonball in my pocket, a smile on my face, and humming the Mission Impossible theme.

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Well, I told him not to listen to that stupid voice…and now he is doing it. I do hope he doesn't go and do something very stupid. Please review.


	6. Lessons in Your Basic Kalltorraiyajin Jo...

This story desperately needs an update, despite the fact that it's getting less attention than I would have wished it would, so here's more.

As usual, thanks to those who reviewed:

KitsuneAkai13 - Yeah, I got a black cat, and she's crazy...bulimic too, but that's another story. Anyway, I am glad you are going to put up with my insanity all the way, looking forward to your review!

animeprincess1452 - Heh, you find Dragonballs each day? That's too funny, I hope this chapter isn't something else you do every day, lol.

Nyberger13 - Well, I apologize for being so mean if you had such a good reason for not reviewing, and I am glad that you have done so. And yeah, Jake is pretty weird, but so is the author creating him, cough-cough...

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**Chapter 3: December 1, 2002 - Lessons in Your Basic Kalltorraiya-jin Job Profile**

The mid-afternoon sun beat down mercilessly onto my exposed body, and the sweat dripped rapidly down my brow, leaving little wet dots on the exposed metal of the machine, which quickly evaporated away in the heat. I wiped away the sweat and finished attaching an ominous looking green button to the pile of junkyard waste that was supposed to attract the Dragonball sitting on the ground next to it like some kind of freaky electromagnet. One might have wondered why I was wasting away this afternoon as well as hundreds of others over the past year making this, but I wasn't too sure myself. After some of the things that the Voice had told me, I wasn't too sure about much of anything anymore.

Why I was building this...this thing, was about the only thing I had not been told, in fact it was the one thing that would have most likely been the easiest to hold over the rest. I guess it isn't exactly something anyone else can claim, what with being an alien and all that, and some of the things I had learned of the history of the Kalltorraiya-jin, after learning I was one, and the Shishkan, whom were coming to Earth and I was going to have to fight, were enough to make my skin crawl. It wasn't that it was scary stuff, even though it might have been to most normal people, but everything I was told by that insane speechmaker in my head was confirming suspicions I already had about myself.

_I think I have always known there was something different about me, _I thought again to myself, reminiscing on my thoughts from the day that had started my path to my own insanity, the day I had heard the word "Dragonballs" for the first time.

"Well, are you sure this piece of crap is going to work?" I asked suddenly of the Voice, breaking the silence in my backyard, absent of all life except my own and a few ants crawling over my feet, as my mother was not home, so what else was new?

'_Yes,'_ he responded after a time, _'if you have made it as I have told you it should service your purposes perfectly.'_

This actually did little to reassure me, as I flicked on the switch and plugged in the old computer monitor, watching in mock amazement as the world map that I had programmed into it came up, flickering slightly, as well as seven blinking red dots on each of the continents. There was a slight hiss, and then something else broke and the screen went off. Like I should be surprised, it is all made from junkyard castoffs, it had broken several times already. Opening up the toaster oven and checking over the circuits soldered to the heating element, I realized that I had no idea what was wrong, and I reluctantly questioned the Voice about what to look for and how to fix it. In all sheer honesty, I don't know whether I should think him more or less credible now that I know what he really is. It has been said that the best teachers are the ones who have experienced what they teach, and I am sure that makes the Voice a very good one, having been one of the first Kalltorraiya-jin and having personally fought the Shishkan all those millions of years ago. Still, knowing that he was a real man, sitting somewhere in the dead world, or heaven, or whatever, telepathically communicating to me to help me save the world was weird.

Finishing the repairs, and after a few choice curses after I accidentally soldered my finger to the wire, it was all done, and this time it didn't break when I turned it on. Satisfied with the result, I looked at the dot on the North American continent and smiled as I realized it was blinking right at my present location. I grinned wider, and then threw the Dragonball across the yard and waited; the dot flickered, went out, and reappeared in the same place.

"It moved, I swear it did!" I said laughing.

'_Let's be serious,' _the Voice said, sounding a bit annoyed.

"So," I said my heart beating a little faster in apprehension, "is there anything else I need to know about the Kalltorraiya-jin, and stuff?"

After the last thing I was told, I realized that most of what it actually made a little sense, beyond all that Ki stuff, which I didn't understand why I couldn't use even though I was supposed to be a Kalltorraiya-jin. And green was my favorite, but thinking about glowing that color whenever I got pissed kind of made me laugh. Something about being part Kalltorran, which had blue Ki, and Saiya-jin - yellow Ki, made me green I guess, which could be explained either by codominance in genetics, or by simple color theory: yellow and blue makes green...

'_Well, I'm not sure how you might take this next part,' _the Voice said, sounding stressed for the first time ever, _'it's a little bit deep.'_

_Whatever; and what you haven't told me isn't? _I questioned in my thoughts.

'_It's about the way Kalltorraiya-jin reproduce; I just don't know how a testy teenager might take the news that he's actually completely sterile...'_

That one I couldn't believe, it was just stupid. What was the point of having the most powerful species in the universe if they couldn't procreate? Besides, I was sure I could...not that I had ever actually tried, though I planned to some day, preferably with Katharine, of course.

"Alright, I believe a lotta what you have told me, but that I can't. You see, when I was about 11 years old and I started puberty I suddenly was able to-" I started to say.

'_Will you shut up and listen to me!' _the Voice said, interrupting me. _'Look, I'm sorry it sucks to be you, but believe me when I say I know how it feels; denial is normal in your case. It's just the way things work, when you breed a horse and donkey, you get a mule, which is powerful but sterile. The same holds true for Saiya-jin and Kalltorran offspring, which doesn't matter as all Kalltorraiya-jin are male anyway, makes them more powerful and-' _

"What?!" I shrieked, doing the interrupting this time. "Now you are saying I am of an entire race of homosexuals?!"

'_Your sexual orientation is completely irrelevant you fool! We are wasting time, now shut up and listen for God's sake! Yes, all Kalltorraiya-jin are gay, but that isn't what we are discussing here, that doesn't matter based on what you have to do.'_

"Whoa, hang on there cowboy, what about Katharine?" I asked, crossing my arms and looking defiant.

'_Didn't I say something about denial...?' _

"Cheh, damn worthless race, they can't even have kids!"

'_I didn't say that, I just said 'sterile', stop putting words in my mouth!'_

Now I was confused, how could you have children in an entire species of males?

'_I know this is hard, a lot of things I have told you are, but just sit tight and listen to me. Besides, you know what that is like, you do remember, don't you?'_

I did remember, but that was so long ago, and now things were different; we were just good friends now, I know it. I didn't want to remember what I did with him, because the last time we did...it was the worst day of my life. I hated that memory, hated that day, and I forced it away, holding the tears in with a concentrated burst of effort.

'_Kalltorraiya-jin can have children, it's a complex process, but it's all about the Ki I have been telling you about. See, Ki is like a two sided coin, a good side and a bad side. It can be used for destruction, but Ki can also heal, and create life anew. I will spare you the details of Kalltorraiya-jin sexuality, but I can tell you that two of them can combine their Ki to create a child, something like an infantile fusion of both the fathers.'_

"So, you are saying that they just touch hands and concentrate their Ki and 'poof' a baby just falls out of thin air, just like that?" I asked, fascinated.

'_It's a little more complicated, but the process is much the same in basic concept. Now, enough of the biology lessons, back to the Dragonballs.'_

I shrugged my shoulders, trying to forget what I had been told, as well as trying to forget my past -

_David..._

- and instead concentrated on turning on the machine. Patent number KJ - 3,507,029.

"Let's do this," I said and I flicked on the last switch. There was a hum and instantly the Dragonball flew across the yard and attached itself the cone on top of the machine, nearly beaning me in the head in the process.

_Whoa, that was close! _I thought.

I looked back at the screen and saw the dots start moving faster and faster heading precisely to my present location on the map.

'_HIT THE DIRT!' _the Voice screamed.

I dove for the ground just as the first one crashed through the trees and hit the machine with a metallic clang. Seconds later, four more hit it after crashing through a neighbor's house, a streetlight, a concrete wall, and a bird feeder hanging off the patio roof at probably better than ten-thousand miles per second leaving perfect round holes, and scattering bird-seed everywhere.

_Holy shit! It's a good thing my neighbors are not home! _ I thought, standing up.

I then noticed there were only six Dragonballs on the machine. Using my better discretion, I dove down again just as the seventh and final one flew through a solid five-foot thick rock again leaving a perfect round hole and stuck next to the rest. I switched it off and watched the seven Dragonballs fall to the ground. I looked them over; minus the one I had found, there were six others, each with stars in the center like the one I had with three. The others had one, two, four, five, six, and seven stars, respectfully. Taking this apparent miracle with a grain of salt, as well as silently thanking myself that I had gone pee _before _I had undertaken this, I asked the Voice what to do next, and was told to press the button that I had put on more carefully than the rest, wired to some explosives and labeled 'Do Not Push!' I didn't want to destroy that which I had spent so long working on, but I was assured that it was imperative that nobody else ever use this machine. Something about wishing and screwing up everything we had done, and would do, but I wasn't sure on the details.

I pressed it and stepped back, watching through squinted eyes as it blew into a few pieces and I lugged them into the trash after making sure that the circuitboards were all fried to nothing.

Walking back to the Dragonballs, I realized that they were sitting in the wrong formation, and rolled them into the right position, taking a step back as they started to blink a glowing yellow, accompanied by a strange sound, indicating they were in the right place.

"Now what?" I asked, looking upward as if to see the face of the Voice in the sky.

'_This part's easy. Summon the Dragon!'_

_-----------------------------_

Want more? Not so confused you can't think? Good, now review!


	7. Making a Wish

Here's the next chapter, just since I feel like updating.  
  
Thanks so very much to my reviewers, you people keep me going sometimes:  
  
animeprincess1452 - Yep, interesting concept alright. I'm glad you don't find it too weird, because I almost thought it was when I first made some of the stuff up! Keep the reviews coming, I have a feeling you will though.  
  
KitsuneAkai13 - Well I think it's cooler that his entire species is gay, plus that makes for some very interesting plot twists later in the story. I bet you can't wait to read the next chapter now. The answer to that pressing question, and some others (like the ones you listed ) are coming up soon, stay tuned!  
  
Here we go, strap yourselves in!

-----------------------------

Chapter 4: December 1, 2002 - Making a Wish

This, I wasn't exactly expecting.  
  
My first inclination was to turn around and address the Voice like he was some kind of idiot; I mean, sure the damn things are called Dragonballs, but I didn't think they actually had something to do with a real dragon, not that I believed any of this anyway.  
  
"You want me to what?!" I asked, a little flustered at the moment.  
_  
'I said: summon the Dragon. It's a rather simple request.'_  
  
"Yeah, but I really don't know how!" I said, feeling foolish at asking for it.  
_  
'I expected as much, just say exactly what I tell you to say.' _  
  
But before he could tell me what to say, we got into a little argument, during which I told him that he was full of shit, dragon-shit maybe, and that I wasn't going to do it. After a few threats on his part, I finally gave in, not wanting to deal with it anymore, and frankly I wanted it to not work so I could laugh at him. Feeling very foolish, I went over that phrase I was told to yell to the sky in my head a few more times and prepared to say it.  
_  
If my neighbors hear this I'll be put away,_ I thought ruefully, wondering whatever possessed me to do anything that maniac told me to, but somehow also knowing. I knew what I knew, and what I knew was that something was happening. Something was happening that I both wanted to stop and simultaneously wanted no part in at all. But already I was up to my neck in it, and stopping something that has gone that far that fast is often impossible, like stopping a huge boulder rolling down a hill. Times like that it's best to just go with the flow, as they say, and try to stay at least one step ahead, or risk being crushed by the weight of your own destiny. I had to admit, I hated having to do that, but I of all people, or aliens, wasn't about to stand aside and see so many people killed. So many innocent children killed...  
  
Steadying myself on the ground a few feet in front of the Dragonballs, which were blinking in sync with that same eerie yellow glow over and over, I yelled: "Eternal Dragon by your name I summon you forth…SHENRON!!!"  
  
There was a pause, nothing happened.  
  
But then I felt something emanating from the Dragonballs, glowing with an almost internal light, and raging with power that shook me to the core. A narrow pillar of light reached for the sky as the balls glowed so bright I could not look at them. Then all at once the beam of light reached the clouds and the sky mercilessly began to darken before my eyes. The sky went black, but strangely no stars were visible. Lightning zipped about the scorched sky with an unnatural sound, and bolts of electricity crackled about my house and around the Dragonballs which were bathed in a strange golden light. I was a bit frightened at first.  
_  
Oh SHIT!_ I thought. _What if whatever dooms the Voice prophesized is what I have just unwittingly released? I'll be responsible for countless deaths!_  
  
I couldn't stand that thought, I didn't want it to be my fault! I don't care what that thing is, if it plans to try and destroy the planet, I would do my best to fight it. But even as I thought that to myself, I realized that this power was so incredible, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire universe could feel it.

. . .

  
Meanwhile on a distant planet...  
  
"...rsfgurs'qr ghrs, deelmbc rsfgurs noiuvapq, ulmbc ijejkjk uvijursatuapq jkedea eqr jkaders ilm rsfgurs uvipqjkbc."  
  
At that moment, eleven spacecraft streaked across space at an incalculable speed, their destination, unknown. Their intentions however, were for blood. 

. . .

That was something else, another power, so faint I could barely sense it, and it was that same one I felt that one moment a year ago, that day I had seen what horrors might be released if I failed. I could feel it, and I didn't know what good could combat such evil. Not even the purest heart could stop it, so what was I against such a force?  
  
But the Voice must not have been paying attention, he went right on trying to parley my last fears, instead of concentrating on my present ones,  
_  
'Don't be ridiculous, you are going to save the world with this not destroy it.'_  
But nothing had changed except for the noise, which had reached such a din that I was certain half the city would hear it, it was as if all the power in the universe was being unleashed in my own backyard.  
  
The bolts of lightning converged suddenly right upon the small pile of seven Dragonballs, and with a roar that shook the ground beneath my feet a gigantic gold figure emerged from the balls with such an incredible force that I went flying onto my rear. As I looked up I saw the huge shaft of light take form into a long slender shape that coiled itself about the sky.  
  
"Holy Shit! That thing is fucking massive!" I screamed in awe.  
_  
'Will you just get your ass of the ground!' _The Voice said, scorning me.  
  
I can't say I didn't TRY to get myself off the ground but for some reason I lay transfixed upon what was happening right in front of me. I watched from the dirt, so amazed that I had to remind myself to breathe. The snake-like figure faded from brilliant gold to a muted green and brown and took the obvious form of a dragon.  
_  
So, all in one day I have gathered seven balls from all around the world with a hunk of junkyard scrap, blown it up, and then released a dragon from nowhere that will help me save the world. Sounds to me like something for Ripley's Believe It or Not®,_ I thought in slight amusement.  
  
"I don't understand why you need me," I said, shocked at the scope and power of the beast floating above my house, filling the black sky, "I think that thing can take care of the world all by itself!"  
  
I got no response and then, without warning, the dragon bent its head toward the ground and spoke with an air of authority.  
  
"YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME FROM MY SLUMBER, SPEAK NOW AND TELL ME YOUR WISHES. I WIIL GRANT THEM IF I CAN!!!" the Dragon roared in my direction.  
  
I was completely and utterly speechless.  
  
"Hiya, you must be Shenron. Uhh, sorry for waking you up, but…can you get rid of those aliens coming to destroy Earth?" I asked a little timidly, not sure how to approach the problem.  
  
"THE DEATH OF MORTAL BEINGS IS THE HANDS OF ENMA DAIO, MY POWER IS NOT GREAT ENOUGH FOR THAT PROBLEM!" the Dragon boomed, "I AM SORRY BUT I CANNOT GRANT THAT WISH!" came the reply.  
  
I hadn't the faintest idea who this Enma Daio guy was, but I guess he had to be important if his power was even greater than this dragon, but I didn't give much thought to it as I just muttered the next thing that came to mind.  
  
"I wish I had a monkey," I said nonchalantly.  
  
"IT SHALL BE DONE!" roared the Dragon from above and instantly a monkey appeared in the grass in front of me, out of thin air, gave a few ooo-ooo-aaa-aaa's and took off over the fence into the streets.  
  
After picking my jaw off the ground, I grinned twenty feet wide, happy as could be because I was genuinely glad I did not try to test the wishing theory with my second thought...  
_  
Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener, that is what I truly want to be..._  
  
Satisfied with the results for my first wish, I immediately started thinking of what to wish for next, but that dammed Voice broke through my thoughts yet again.  
_  
'Now that you are certain that you can be granted wishes, ask Shenron exactly what I say.'_  
I listened carefully as I was given another phrase to recite, but this time I wasn't going to waste  
the wish on something stupid and plainly refused.  
  
"Now, why the hell would I say that? I can turn into a GOD if I wanted to!" I retorted.  
_  
'You have to!'_  
  
"Why did you make the wish all way-back-when if I have to make another wish?!"  
_  
'It seemed like a good idea at the time, double protection if you ask me...'_  
  
Meanwhile, the Dragon, probably a little confused with this strange boy in front of him who had just wished for a monkey and was having an argument with himself, decided enough was enough.  
  
"I AM GROWING IMPATIENT, SPEAK NOW AND TELL ME YOUR SECOND WISH!"  
  
I was about on the verge of telling the Eternal-whatever he-was to go to hell upon hearing that one, but luckily I stopped myself from doing so, lest the Dragon turn me into a box of chocolates.  
_  
'You are going to wish for what I tell you to!'_ the voice shot back at me.  
  
"Fine, and we will just see that nothing happens when I say it!" I spat, getting rather impatient myself.  
  
"Dragon," I yelled to the sky. "Grant me the power that was given to me from my very birth, and give me the strength to defeat the evil that arrives here in a short time. That power, vested in me from a wish long ago is now to be released, so that I can complete the destiny that lies before me and do exactly what I must to follow the path that is rightfully mine by my birthright!"  
  
There was dead silence for a long time and the Dragon almost looked a bit confused by this request but quickly reacted with his seemingly-customary phrase.  
  
"IT SHALL BE DONE!" said the Dragon again and its eyes glowed again and then faded.  
  
I thought I felt something for just a second, like a gentle touch all over my body, but I couldn't quite understand it as it was a feeling like none other I had ever felt. It might have just been the wind, but I couldn't be sure of that either; I must be losing my mind, wishing for something like that.  
  
"I HAVE GRANTED YOUR WISHES, UNTIL AWOKEN AGAIN I LEAVE THIS EARTH! FARE-THEE-WELL!"  
  
With that, the Dragon streaked back into the Dragonballs, glowing gold again with another terrific roar. The Dragonballs rose into the air and with a crack, separated and flew across the sky in seven different directions. In an instant the sky lightened and became blue once again.  
  
And everywhere around, dread silence permeated everything. It was almost too quiet. I couldn't say I wasn't a bit pissed that I could have wished myself into infinite riches or something like that, and had wasted it chanting some stupid thing, or something.  
_  
You know, I hope whatever you had me say will work, _I thought to the Voice.  
_  
'Don't worry, it will,'_ came the response.  
  
I looked around, it was already getting dark, and I could feel my stomach calling me into food mode. I walked into my house in silence, hoping that the phone in the local psychiatrist's office wouldn't be ringing off the hook for the rest of the year. I was certain that several people in town would call in insane after seeing that thing in the sky, I almost thought I should. At least I would probably wake up soon.  
  
This was one crazy dream if anything. ****

End of Part One.

-----------------------------

The end of part one comes now, and with that one section of this epic tale has been concluded. The only question on everyone's mind is: what will happen next? Please review!


	8. What Lies Inside

Here's the next update, sooner than ever before!

Thanks to all reviewers:

Chibi Goten-chan - I am SO sorry that I am confusing you, but I really don't know how to explain it unless you tell me what is confusing me, because I dunno if I can re-explain the entire thing. I guess I can send you an e-mail with the synopsis of the first few chapters if you want, but for some reason it won't let me see what your e-mail is so I need you to tell me what it is. Thanks for reading it, or at least attempting to, and for leaving the review, I really appreciate it.

animeprincess1452 - Yeah, well I know you will keep reading this, and have no idea how you understand this either, it's kinda weird, I'll admit it, but at least you like it. And wouldn't you wish for a monkey too?

Next chapter is right ahead:

Ha Ha! Fooled you!

Okay, okay, here it is:

-----------------------------

**Part 2 - Accepting Destiny**

"Our brightest blazes of glory are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks."

_Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British Writer and Lexicographer_

"A bird can only soar if the sky has no bounds."

_The Bhagavad-gita_

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

_William Jennings Bryan (_1860 - 1925_), US lawyer, orator, & politician _

**Chapter 1: December 2, 2002 - What Lies Inside**

Surprisingly, I woke up feeling a bit normal for once. At least I felt like I had slept a week, and I was so refreshed I felt good enough to take on an elephant and tear it apart. But still, something was wrong, I thought.

"It was just one crazy dream, that voice isn't talking to me anymore and there are no massive dragons floating around my yard! This is great; I'm not really a freak!" I said, happy again that my 'destiny' had finally gone away.

I walked slowly to the mirror on the wall, wondering why my subconscious had decided to have me dream that crazy long-ass dream. Starting with that stupid symbol, and the madness went on from there, on and on into the depths. I frankly didn't think that I was creative enough to come up with all that stuff, because I thought dreams were based upon real things that a person thought, but that didn't make sense. I hadn't experienced any of it, it was all a foolish dream, a fantasy, a nothing, and I was glad it was over. But what did it mean?

I didn't even look at my finger; I knew it nothing would be there. As my eyes adjusted to the dim, early morning light, I stared at my hair, confused.

"I must have slept funny; I don't think my hair has ever been that...spiky," I muttered to myself, ruffling my hair and smoothing it down, after which it promptly stuck back up when I removed my hand.

"That's odd," I said with a shrug, "well nothing a good shower can't fix."

As I stepped into the bathroom and shut the door, I thought I felt something touch me. I turned around quickly but I was a good couple of feet from the wall. I then saw something behind me, I was sure this time, and I turned quickly and saw a flash of brown.

But there was still nothing.

I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw it again, as I turned it moved away out of my sight.

"Goddamit! Who's there?" I screamed in frustration, turning around as fast as I could and punching at the shadowy shape. I cratered the wall but didn't hit what I kept seeing there. Now I was getting pissed. I looked at the bathroom mirror, feeling a bit uneasy in my stomach as I admired my naked reflection. But then I turned a bit to the right and saw what had been following me, and I screamed.

I had a tail.

Now I was sure, I was losing my mind to whatever had happened to me, and in horror I realized that that crazy dream wasn't one.

_'Rise and shine, Jake, time to...yeah. We should discuss that,' _came the sound of the Voice in my mind, back with a vengeance.

"Holy shit," I wailed, tripping over my own feet and falling face-first to the ground. "I'm turning into a fucking monkey!"

I was glad my mother wasn't home. If she saw me writhing naked on the floor screaming, she would freak. If she saw the tail, she would die. Maybe she wouldn't, after all, according to her this _has_ happened before.

"What is going on?!" I said, regaining some of my previous composure, but still sounding freaked.

_'Don't worry; it's just some of that darn Saiya-jin coming out, which also explains the condition of your hair. And don't get scared if you can start reading minds, that's a Kalltorran capability.'_

_I have got to be crazy for believing you, _I thought.

The voice was right though, that was no dream, I had really wished to a mile-long dragon to unlock a secret power in me, and it was coming out quicker than I would have thought.

"Well this is all fine and dandy, but the kids at school are gonna freak over this!"

_'Tell them it's a very late Halloween prop! _

I really hoped he was joking.

_'Seriously, you should just cut it off, you don't need it and by the time I would be grow back you-' _

"No fucking way! I have had it cut off before; I'm keeping it this time. I'll just wrap it around my waist and put on a long shirt or something like that."

_'Suit yourself; just bring a knife in case you change your mind.' _

This time I didn't care if he was joking, I thought it looked cool wrapped around my middle. I walked back to my room, completely forgetting about the shower, and threw on some clothes.

_I really hope no one sees this damn tail, what could possibly happen next? _I wondered to myself.

Honestly, I didn't think that things could get any more bizarre, or worse.

I was wrong, dead wrong, for that was the day I would learn the most valuable lesson in my life, the day I would learn that fear is the most powerful emotion of all. That didn't mean I was scared for myself, I was scared for the people of Earth; whatever was coming, it was here, somehow I knew, I just knew.

I could still feel them.

**- - -**

The cold air stung my skin, and my cold thoughts stung my mind as I walked to my next class, in constant worry, unsure of what was going to pass.

"Hey Jake! You look worried, what's up?" David asked, walking up and then hopping around me like a starved puppy.

"Nothing, I'm fine," I said with a small sigh, "you would never understand."

David responded, but it sounded like he was muttering something, and it was garbled like a bad radio transmission.

"Speak up will you?" I said, gathering a confused look from my friend.

David just shook his head, saying: "What? I didn't say anything."

I had scarcely enough time to realize that I might very well had taken that last thing I heard from his mind, when I suddenly felt an embrace from behind and a pair of soft hands encircled my eyes.

"Guess who, Jakey!" came the expected message of someone trying to sound like someone they were not, with no success whatsoever.

"Katy, will you knock off the grade-school stuff, I'm not in the mood," I said, slightly annoyed.

"Ohhh," came the gushy reply from David, "looks like Katharine and Jake are in looooooveeeeee!"

I shut him up with a little push out of the way. Of course for me, a newborn Kalltorraiya-jin since this morning, I suppose, there was no such thing as a 'little' push, and he went flying into some bushes while some of the nearby students looked on in utter shock.

Katharine didn't even notice.

"So, where were you yesterday?" she asked, looking concerned. "I called your house and all I got was static..."

_Uhh, yeah, the Dragon,_ I thought to myself.

"...and is that a bulge under your shirt, or are you just glad to see me?" she continued flirtatiously.

"Um," I responded with a bit of hesitation, "that's nothing, I gotta go!" and with that I left her speechless and walked quickly to my next class. As I sped into my next class shortly before the final bell, my tail wriggled out of my shirt and I tucked it quickly back in and took my seat.

**- - -**

"Repeat after me: "Un caballo es un caballo, por supusto, por supuesto!" The Spanish teacher went on pointlessly.

"Un caballo es un caballo por supuesto, por supuesto!" the class groaned out.

I looked at my watch, there was only a few minutes left until next period, which was probably gonna be worse than Spanish. The announcement came over the PA system to turn on the television to watch the daily news bulletin put on by the hopelessly under-funded Journalism department.

But when the TV was switched on, the hair on the back of my neck prickled, something about where the news report was freaked me. A few people in the class cocked their eyebrows and looked in wonder at the caption on the bottom of the screen, above which a man was seen, walking through snow flanked by several other cameramen:

**Unidentified Flying Object Seen Landing in Western Siberia**

"Oh, shit," I said, getting some strange looks from nearby students.

The camera shifted to a several small, dark things on the horizon, and then back to the same man that was there before, bundled up in several layers of fur-lined clothing.

"As you can see it is now the dead of night," said the reporter, "about 3:00 in the very early morning, and we are close to a small town in the Central Siberian Uplands."

I looked over and saw the teacher about to switch the channel, and with all my will I wished she wouldn't. She paused, her hand stopping its movement.

_Go sit down! _I thought, wishing she would go away.

And to my utter amazement she did stop, and turned right around and sat down at her desk, to which a few students looked confused, wondering why we were watching this instead of the bulletin. I bet they thought it was all some kind of hoax anyway.

"Locals here have reported a ship of extraterrestrial origin landing here just a few minutes ago," the reporter went on, after he nearly lost his balance in the snow and then kept walking forward at the same sluggish pace toward the shapes in the distance.

The bell rang unexpectedly, and everyone rushed out the door towards their next classes. Easily outpacing the rest of them, I ran ahead, doing a fancy front-flip over a few freshmen when they got in my way (and probably scaring the crap out of them as well) and landed neatly in front of my next class with hardly a sound, and I was easily inside before the third and final toll of the bell sounded.

"Good morning," greeted the teacher as I walked past my seat and switched on the TV without asking, completely ignoring him.

"Mr. Threshard, did I say you could turn on the TV?" he said displeased, hands on his hips trying to assert his teacher powers on me.

_Shut up and go drink some coffee you twit! _I thought to him, thoroughly pleased when he did exactly that and left me alone.

The rest of the class soon ran in, but I didn't care. I looked back to the TV, and the camera was sloppily focusing on a few odd-looking...things. They looked kinda like people in very weird costumes, tall and...a bit spiky; but that was them, the evil, I could feel it.

The rest of the class watched in silence as they counted ten aliens, and one bigger one that seemed to be the leader. The camera focused back to the reporter, who gulped, and then approached the lead alien fearlessly with a microphone and read from a piece of paper:

"Greetings, I am a representative of the Planet Earth. Where are you from? Are you their leader? Can you understand me?"

He then proceeded to recite the same thing in a few other languages with very bad accents for all of them.

"Les salutations, je suis représentant de la Planète Earth. D'où vous sont? Etes-vous leur dirigeant? Vous pouvez me comprendre?"

"Los saludos, yo soy un representante de la Planeta Earth. ¿De dónde está ustedes? ¿Es usted su líder? ¿Puede entendérme?"

"Begrüßungen, ich ist ein Vertreter Erde des Planeten. Von sind wo Sie? Sind Sie ihr Leiter? Können Sie mich verstehen?"

"Hilsener, jeg er en representant av planetJorden. Hvor er De fra? Er De deres leder? Kunn De forstår meg?"

And then he started to say the same in what sounded like Russian, but the lead alien refused to let him finish.

"Uvejkjk wxist qrfgors omn zylmbc efars iors ide klwx uvuwx, qrrsomnebc fgoklulm mneaaba ide qrfgers!" the alien said in an incomprehensible language.

With no response coming, it lifted an appendage and struck the man square in the chest. The poor guy never so much as had a chance as he was split messily in two, blood splattering all over the snow. The cameramen apparently took off running as the camera fell to the ground, tilting sideways. There was a crunching sound, and a head rolled past the view of the camera trailing a piece of spinal cord and leaving a grisly red path. I watched in utter horror as the aliens flew off, yes - flew, and disappeared from view into the lights of the nearby town. A split second later, there were a few crashes and an immense red explosion came out of the center of the town, throwing buildings and bodies into the air. One alien appeared in a flash of light before the camera and pointed a hand at it. It then seemed to laugh and a red glow emitted from its hand. The camera suddenly turned to static and the screen sputtered, hesitated, and turned back to the news studio, showing the anchorwoman, fainted dead away on the table.

**- - -**

After the almost incredible events of that day, I wasn't the least bit surprised that there was some suspicion; I don't blame people for thinking that the news report was a big fake, like some kind of _War of the Worlds_ all over again. After all, _I_ only knew for sure that it was real because the fact was I could feel those aliens, and the death they caused. I was so scared at that point that I forced myself to ask that stupid voice what the hell he expected me to do.

"So, what makes you think I can deal with that? They can fly; they can cut people's heads off with one hit, and blow things up with a point of a finger!" I yelled at him as I biked back to school the next day.

_'I don't think you know what you are capable of, _he said.

"I don't think you know what I am NOT capable of, dammit!" I shot back.

_'Wait until later today, you will see.'_

So later at school, although nobody around the school believed it had happened, we were going to watch the said 'aftermath' of the destruction, as it was reported that the aliens had moved on to Moscow.

"So, David, you actually think it happened?" I asked of him, playing as if I was not sure as we walked on in tandem to the last class of the day.

"I'm pretty sure it was, I don't think someone could make that up," he answered quietly.

"Well, I hope someone comes to save the day!" I said half jokingly.

David turned, a bit angry, saying: "Come on Jake, knock it off! This isn't one of your crazy _anime_ shows; this is real! Shit, we might all be dead tomorrow!"

"I know..." I answered slowly.

We walked into the class together; being the only one we shared, to watch the next news report. Just as we entered the bell rang and the teacher turned on the TV and started to write up the day's schedule. The news report had already begun.

"...ou can see what has happened here," said the man, a new reporter.

Several groans came up from the classroom; evidently some skeptics thought that whoever had come up with this sick joke were playing it too hard. The reporter continued to narrate as the camera panned over the town's remains, burnt and blasted into pieces and there were dead bodies everywhere. Just then one of the aliens appeared in front of the camera crew, stepping forward menacingly. The cameraman seemed to be scared beyond belief as the camera looked as if it was moving backwards and then the carnage began anew as the alien began to fly about, slaughtering the helpless crew and by now I was so numb I couldn't care. I looked over, seeing that David's eyes were as big as saucers, and feeling pity for his fright.

But then, in the middle of the melee, I noticed a small boy, perhaps 6 years old, climb out of a pile or rubble and run past. The alien turned, and nonchalantly blasted the child to bits. I didn't care about the crew, I didn't care about the run-down Russian towns, but this was too much. I had a complex in my extremely twisted mind that held children as the only reason that this planet and its people deserved to be saved. Children meant too much, they were naive and innocent. They were sacred.

I felt my anger rise, just as before, but this time it felt different, I couldn't explain it, I wanted to take the table that my fists clenched underneath and tear it to shreds. I thought I heard the Voice, telling me to let my anger go. It didn't matter, I was going mad, I couldn't control myself, my rage had no bounds. Though I wasn't making a sound I could hear a screaming din in my ears. The rest of the world closed around me, my vision clouded with rage that truly was blinding. I thought of all the injustice in the world, all the killing and senseless destruction, and compressed it all into that image of the boy being killed. My mind broke, and all I saw was a fire from within and I pushed it out.

The floor began to shake beneath my feet, the windows rattled and a warm wind started to blow in the room. I felt my rage peak and for the first time in my life I didn't just turn and shatter an object, I pushed it all out of my body to the outside. It was much more than I could have ever dreamed of. The class turned into a maelstrom of chaos, books and papers flew, desks overturned, the TV tube burned out and the screen went black. There was a rumbling sound and all the class seemed to be tossing in a tornado. I let it all go. POW! A light above my head exploded. POW! POW! POW! POW! The rest of the lights in the room followed suit filling the area with smoke and sparks. The windows shattered, the door broke off its hinges and flew across the outside hall, everyone but I was screaming. They thought they were all going to die. I let up and stopped, my anger subsided, and the class fell silent. Endless silence.

**- - -**

"Man, that was wicked!" David cried out, as we walked on toward home, "you ever seen something like that?"

"No," I said playing very dumb, "it must have been some kind of freaky miniature hurricane, or something like that."

Katharine was tagging along, too. She hadn't been home after all and her class had been across the hall from where I was. She had witnessed the sheer power I now held, as the door had gone flying into her class' wall. But she was still at least as puzzled as David.

"Well I have to be going the other way," she suddenly spoke up.

I watched her leave, and not soon afterward, David went off as well, leaving me alone, still unsure what to do with what I now knew I was. I looked inward for an answer and before I knew it I was home, David and Katharine and destroyed Russian towns gone out of my thoughts. As usual, my mom wasn't home so I walked into my backyard, marks left by burning dragon-matter still barely visible on the grass.

_I just don't get it, I see now that I'm powerful, but I am not powerful enough._

The Voice reassured me, giving me some points on fine-tuning this mysterious Ki that I could now understand after having been told about it for so long. I wanted to do it again though, and I was told how so I clenched my fists and attempted to push out my energy like in the classroom while yelling and to my amazement an ethereal white glow surrounded me, and my hair seemed to lift upwards. The ground shook a little and leaves blew around.

_'That's good; now keep raising your energy higher.'_

I kept going and I saw out of the corner of my eye two small boys, one with blond and neatly parted hair and blue eyes and the other, a bit younger, with dark eyes and unruly spiked black hair. Recognizing them as the kid from next door and his older friend, I ignored them and kept going, forgetting for just a second what I was doing. They stood transfixed, watching carefully over the fence when I concentrated a tiny bit too much and my tail flew out from underneath my shirt, the ground suddenly shook more, felling a nearby tree.

The two boys looked at each other, screamed, and took off down the street, and I stopped to watch them go, barely noticing my feet touching back down to the ground. They disappeared into the distance, and I let out a sigh, wishing I hadn't scared them like that. Still, feeling that Ki running through me, and all that power I now held was addicting, I wanted to do it more and more. It was almost going to be fun to fight those aliens, and no matter how powerful they looked, I was sure I could easily dispose of them in a few short minutes, and that would be that. But I still wondered about one thing.

"What about that energy they were shooting from their hands?" I asked out loud.

The Voice stayed silent.

Deciding that it must just be an extension of the same Ki that made me that energy flow around me, I stuck my hand forward and wrinkled my nose in effort, trying to visualize the Ki shooting from my outstretched palm. After a few minutes of nothing, I started realizing it wasn't going to work. So, taking a hint from what I had once learned from the Voice about my Ki repository in my middle, I tried to imagine the Ki flowing out of there and into my hand, and was rewarded with a small glow and a feeling of heat. Satisfied that it would do, I pushed it away from me and toward a nearby rock, there was a flash of light and the Ki seemed to dissipate into the air instead of going anywhere.

"Crap!" I said, getting frustrated, and angry.

My energy started to rise a little with my anger, and instead of just pushing it out of my hand, I gathered a soccer ball sized amount of the whitish-green glowing stuff that made my hand all tingly and concentrated it into a smaller ball that pulsed with power. Pointing my hand back at the rock, I pushed the energy away and it shot toward the rock, retaining its shape and hit with a flash and a terrific explosion. The dust cleared and the rock was gone, along with a three foot chunk of dirt around it, the edge of the crater looked melted, and when I touched it, it was hot.

"Whoa," I said, surprised at how little effort that had taken.

Believing that I had done enough for one day, I walked back inside to meditate, feeling my tail swishing about in the light wind, while hoping for the best for tomorrow. I didn't know what my fate was, or what the next day would bring, but I was sure that my life would never be the same again.

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Thanks for reading, and I'm REALLY sorry if it isn't making a whole lot of sense, but I will do my best to make it clear in the future. Oh, and just _who_ were those cute little boys watching Jake?! Only the human forms of the two cutest chibis in the whole world: Trunks and Goten!!! That's my little thing, every one of my stories are gonna have them in it, in one way or another, and they might come back as cameo characters later if you want, so tell me if you like that idea. Please review.


	9. The Invasion

Here's the next chapter, and the next one will be coming fast, so pay attention. Finally, there is some action!

Thanks to my reviewers:

animeprincess1452 - Well, it would kinda be stupid for him to wish to be Saiya-jin, being he already is half...so a monkey seemed logical. And I guess you wouldn't want one, but that's okay, since you don't need one. That and it's good you know my writing style, since you have been around all the time.

Chibi Goten-chan - Wow...never in my life has someone left me so many reviews at once! I love that you are getting so into my story, and some of the stuff you are saying in your reviews really make a lot of sense, like some of the stuff I am saying in my story are actually getting through to you people! Oh yeah, and about him possibly having feelings for David (David-kun ), that is what the next chapter is for!

KitsuneAkai13 - Yep, little Jaky sure is cute isn't he? Well, I am guessing you have been getting the same idea as Goten-chan up there in thinking that there is something going on between our two male friends, and now you will read this chapter and find out what those feelings mean...

It's shota time!!! Wait...did I say that out loud...? Heh, heh, pretend I didn't say that, and just read the next chapter, okay?

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**Chapter 2: December 4, 2002 - The Invasion**

They were coming, not just to Earth, but _here_ in my own city right on top of me, and I didn't know if anything could possibly stop them, not even me. None of the TVs in the school worked anymore; come to think about it nothing that had used electricity worked anymore. It seemed that something was just generally wrong about the world, and I feared that the reason they were coming here was because of me, if I could feel those evil aliens, so perhaps they could feel me too.

All the girls complained about how cold it was while the wind blew across the campus and everybody talked about basically nothing. It was, at least on the surface, just like any other normal December day around those parts, but it was not the same to me, maybe, because I knew what was coming.

I saw it, but nobody else did, as the aliens moved across the planet, leaving a path of destruction, to say the least, but they were still moving fast, according to the media, and they would probably be here soon. I was surprised that we had to go to school, when everybody knew the world would end at any moment, but we did, and it no longer mattered anymore. And yet, I still wondered how many more must die before this particular day was done. I watched the news, and so did my mother, I guess she really does care for me, in a way, as she told me I should stay at home instead of attending school, not that I was any safer there, so I figured it was best to just go, and try to live my life as normally as possible.

But that was in the morning, now it was midday and I could feel their evil glancing just north of the school I stood rooted in. I couldn't possibly fathom why people all over refused to believe that it was even happening, refused to believe that they were about to be killed by hostile aliens and that it wasn't just some farcical skit set up by the media. Perhaps they were just in denial. And it wasn't even my fault, they were here already but I couldn't stop hating myself; it was my Ki extensions that had brought them here, my powering up, I knew. They had felt that and it had guided them to this part of the world like a beacon. I had to do something but-

"JAKE!?" Katharine's soft voice brought me out of my pitiful musings. "Are you even listening?" she asked of me, hands on her hips, looking forgotten.

Honestly I had not been, but I pried for a second into her head to figure out the important parts of what I was supposed to be listening to.

"Yes..." I answered slowly, still trying to put the pieces together.

"Then what did I just say?" she asked suspiciously.

_Ha! I have you there! _I thought proudly.

"You were talking about your Chemistry exam next period," I responded.

"No," she started, narrowing her eyes at me. "I was talking about those aliens...I was kinda _thinking_ about my Chemistry exam though..."

She leaned in closer to me, staring, as if to study her own reflection in my obsidian eyes. It felt a little uncomfortable.

"How did you know that?" she asked of me, before she suddenly went flying towards me and I sidestepped out of the way by pure reaction alone.

"Rats! I almost made her kiss you!" said David, trying to push me into her.

After giving a short look toward Katharine, sprawled out on the grass looking dazed, I was very tempted to punch David in the face for that last offence, but a gentle reminder from the Voice told me I would probably kill the idiot. So I just gave him a "soft" shove towards a nearby security guard which resulted in a collision and poor David being hauled off towards the principal's office as I had planned. As much as I liked him-

_Loved him..._

_-_he still managed to get on my nerves quite often and I took pleasure in knowing that I had inconvenienced him for the moment, if nothing more.

I looked around, feeling all the more uneasy, as I took in the general feelings of the people around me; I seemed to have a good reading on their emotions as well as their thoughts. And at the time I sensed an increasing number of people in the immediate area growing restless and frightened. Something was going on, I was sure of it.

The Voice spoke softly then in my head, _'Don't worry, if you don't succeed right away things will right themselves in time.'_

I knew something was about to happen, but what? I wanted to ask the Voice for help, but he wouldn't give it. He said he had told me just what I needed to know, and no more and I could feel my heart growing heavy, and I knew I must walk the rest of this path alone, even though I wasn't exactly sure why. I looked up, wishing I could see him.

My ancestor.

My predecessor.

My god.

I didn't want him to go away, and I begged him not to forever abandon my thoughts, but he stayed firm. He said he had done enough for this world, and that I knew all I needed to, and that he wanted no more than for me to do my part on my own, as he had once done, all those years before.

His last words to me echo in my mind ever so.

'_Farewell my young Kalltorraiya-jin, never forget your destiny, and never compromise what you hold to be right.' _

The silence was almost deafening as my thoughts started working on their own for the first time again.

That's when it happened.

There was never any warning, only the light of explosions around us, and the low booms that came with them. At once, half the school's students started running in all directions scattering kids and lunches every which way. I stopped to rescue a small freshman from being trampled but everyone stopped whatever they were doing when an enormous explosion rose from the East.

I felt many lives stop and many Kis erased shortly before the flash of light came, lighting up the horrified faces around the school. I wondered briefly for a second on why psychic sense traveled faster than light, before forgetting to care and concentrating on finding my friends while the general feeling in the school grounds went from panic to complete, utter and hopeless panic. I ran into a few people before finding Katharine.

"What's going on?" she yelled over the din, with a slight hitch in her voice.

"It's them. They are the ones who-" I started to say, but then I stopped.

I stopped when I suddenly felt something, like some particular presence, but in all the chaos I couldn't figure out which one. I searched through the files in my heart trying to match the Ki with a name. In an instant it came, and I was no longer confused as to why I felt it from many miles away.

That Ki signature belonged to my mother. I stood confused as to the meaning of it all, puzzling over it as the people ran around me and several other explosions rocked the ground beneath my feet. Now that my mother was dead I no longer had any kin, I was alone in this world...and a long buried memory chose that moment to surface...

It was so many years ago, and those events that had passed had forever changed me, for better and for worse. It had to have been in early 1995, maybe, in fact that would make perfect sense, I was around ten or eleven then. Yes. That was it, since it was just a few days after David's ninth birthday, which meant I was ten and a few months. That was the day that I would never forget, the day I lost my sense of purpose in life.

**- - -**

The sun had shined really bright that day, I remember, I was leaving to go over to David's house, since I had little better to do.

"Hi mommy! How are ya'?" I rattled out as I tossed my empty cereal bowl into the sink.

"Just fine dear," she responded. "Where's the fire? You going somewhere?"

I was already halfway out the door when I looked back.

"No, just over to David's," I answered quickly, before running across the street to my friend's house without listening for a response.

I rang the doorbell and stood for a moment, waiting for an answer.

"Hello?" came the voice from David's father.

"It's just me! Jake!" I said, wanting to get inside as soon as I could.

"Ok, I'll tell him you're here," he said slowly, as always.

I ran inside and found David, sleeping peacefully on his bed. Perfecting a plan in my mind in a few seconds, I snuck over, careful to step over the stuff lying on the floor until I was right next to him. Gathering a big breath, I leaned down close and yelled: "WAKE UP!" right into his ear as loud as I could. He about hit the ceiling, and when he came down he just grinned at me and tried to look like I hadn't scared him.

"Hey Jake, what'cha doin'?" he asked, sitting up.

"Nothin', just thought I'd come here and we could do somethin' fun," I said, sitting down next to my friend and scooting closer to him.

He wasted no time in giving me a playful push, and, when I pushed back, he dove on top of me and tried to wrestle me to the floor. But I was too strong, and after knocking over a lamp with my foot, managed to roll off the bed and pin him underneath me on his back.

"Hey, no fair. You cheated!" he complained, trying to wriggle out from under me.

"I did not," I said plainly.

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too cheat. Did too an' you know it!"

"Aw shuddup, I got you fair-and-square an' _you_ know it!"

"Will you just get off'a me?" he said finally, getting me to roll off his stomach and lay down on the floor next to him.

"I'm sorry about that, I forgot you hate losing all the time," I said finally, breaking the uncomfortable quiet in the room.

David sighed, crossing his arms and saying: "Yeah, I know."

We lay there for a time, just thinking to ourselves, not needing to speak and feeling comfortable so near to each other. Eventually, he moved over, closer to me, and I rolled over on my side to face him, smiling as I watched him chew on a yellow Lego piece. He spit it out and stared back at me, the smile on his face growing too, and he lunged forward to jump on top of me, laughing as I let him keep me pinned on the floor. Now that he had won for once, his mood improved and he stood up, smiling broadly as he walked to the door and shut it, before walking back to me and sitting down, his back against the dresser as mine was. No words were needed, as both of us understood what the other was thinking, and our hands roamed freely, without inhibition, as our clothes came off and we climbed underneath the covers. Forgetting completely about his parents being home, we frolicked in the bed, laughing and playing, stopping only for short moments to touch each other some more. It was so warm under the blankets, stuffy too, and our heavy breathing and sweat from our naked little bodies didn't help matters. His hands felt good on me; and his mouth even better, and I gave him some pleasure too, once it was my turn. We never paid attention to the time when we did this, we just kept going until we were tired of it or our bodies gave out, whichever came first, and we put our clothes back on over our damp skin and got out of bed to play more.

After a time, we went out into the living room and watched a little TV, careful to avoid his mother as we snuck out together a little later into the bathroom. Whether she might have noticed us didn't matter nearly as much as how much of a thrill it was, how much fun it was to be doing things in there that we weren't supposed to be doing, touching each other where our parents told us we should never touch, and just how good it felt. Just being around him was nice, and I knew besides everything else that he felt the same way about me, too.

Night began to fall, and I wondered where my dad and David's dad had gone to, and why they were so late in coming home. But I quickly forgot about that, snuggling deeper into the couch cushions, feeling my friend's comfortably warm shape next to me. He shifted in place as I wrapped an arm around his neck and rested his head on my shoulder. I listened for a moment as he started snoring softly, thinking for a moment that I should wake him again, before yawning loudly and realizing that I was sleepy too.

I don't know how long I slept, I just know that I was awakened and felt really tired, David was there too, and his mom was saying stuff. The next thing I knew, we were in the car, driving somewhere, and way too fast. We got out of the car, and David walked next to me as we tried to keep up with his mom; we were in the hospital parking lot, and I didn't know why. We got inside, and the lights were very bright. I looked over to see David rubbing his eyes, yawning again, before his mom dragged him across the floor and I followed them. We walked into a white room with a curtain and some strange beeping machines, where there was a TV and a bed, and there was David's dad too. He had some bandages on his arm, and what looked like white band-aids on his forehead, and he and David and his mom hugged. I stood in the doorway, not sure about what was going on, and tried to hear what they were talking about. I heard a few little things, like that my dad was with him at some car show, and something blew up, and a lot of people got hurt and stuff, nothing too important. But then they started talking about me, and something they had to tell me, and David's mom started to cry. David walked over and hugged me, and I hugged back, still confused. I asked him what was up and he started to cry too, holding me tighter as he told me the news.

"Your daddy's dead."

I tried not to look into the coffin; it just made my heart hurt, and the speech that the priest was giving didn't make any sense. My dad wasn't a great man, he didn't help the world or anything like that, if anything he was always at work, and I never really got to see him. He didn't even have that symbol on my finger, like I did. I didn't even know if he ever once said he loved me, or ever took me fishing or to see a baseball game, or any of that stuff that daddies are supposed to do with their sons. I didn't know what they called what they did with him, just that they put him and the coffin into something like an oven and burned it and put what was left into some stupid jar.

The jar sat over the fireplace for a few days until we went on a boat to throw the ashes inside of it into the water. It was really cold and rainy when we did that, and David came too, trying to comfort me. I don't even know _why_ we did that, just my mom said that's what my dad wanted to happen when he died. I didn't talk at all the entire time, I just didn't want to.

I think more than a month passed before I started talking to anyone but my friend, and the first few nights after he slept over at my house because I was scared, crawling into bed with me and holding me whenever he could because it made me feel better. I wasn't mad at anything or sad that my dad was dead, just confused. Confused as to why my life was the way it was, confused as to why that stupid symbol sat on my finger laughing at me every day because I didn't know why it was there, just plain confused. I eventually started talking normally again, so much that a person who didn't know any better would think I was just another boy.

But I was certainly different. My emotions were dulled, my demeanor roughened, and my faith in all goodness in this world was almost destroyed. Suffice to say I was changed forever, hardened somehow, but still, and almost ever so, confused.

**- - -**

Confused. That was the best way to put the feeling, then as well as now. As I stood there, the world around me closed off, I noticed nothing but my own thoughts.

_Damn them, damn them all. I won't let them get away with this, killing men and women and children like nothing but trash, _I thought.

The sounds of screaming and running and panic brought me sharply back to reality, shocking me with all its cruel painfulness. I was scarcely aware of what was happening when it was too late to do anything about it; the aliens flew past and were less than a second from destroying the entire city. I did the only thing I could think of to do. I concentrated and used that dammed Ki, which got me into this whole mess, shaking the ground and lifting a few small rocks into the air with my power.

They stopped dead in their tracks, obviously they had sensed that. They turned and, in a particular order, they landed on the ground in the middle of the lunch area. One of the aliens blew up a tree that was in their way and they all touched down less than fifty feet in front of me. The noise stopped and everyone was silent as they gathered in a loose crowd to stare at the aliens standing there.

They looked dangerous, and I somehow wondered how many I might be able to kill before I was destroyed myself.

I hoped my power would be enough.

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This one was a little short, and the next one will be too, because if I hadn't split them up, it would have been a 5,000 word chapter ! So that means two things for me, one, that my chapters are getting way too long, and two, that the next chapter will be ready to go in just a day or so since it's already written. That means just one thing for you people: review!!! Thank you.


	10. Power of the Spirit

I am reaching the end of what I have previously written, so I might be slow on the updates after this one, but I will still keep them coming as long as I have some reviewers, because I know there are all you people out there who can't review so this one's for y'all!

Thanks to those who have no life and can review every day , just kidding:

animeprincess1452 - I'm glad you like it and that it was a good chapter for you, and here's the next one, practically gift-wrapped and ready to read!

Only one reviewer...? Heh, heh, maybe I'm updating too fast...

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**Chapter 3: December 4, 2002 - Power of the Spirit**

I don't remember being that scared, only confused, not sure how to proceed. It would seem that I had become dependant upon the Voice, as much of a constant companion as a guide on the unsure path I walked each day. I looked back up, toward the aliens and took in their appearance.

Now that they were so close and were not moving I could get a much better look at them compared to that which I had seen on the TV. They numbered ten, plus one that was a little bigger that seemed to be the leader because the rest looked to be afraid of him, or to respect him. Even disregarding their incredible powers, they were very imposing so close up, like nothing I had ever seen before. They were very tall, at least seven feet or possibly eight and looked to be almost reptilian in appearance, colored reddish with some off-white and grey parts. Along with a pair of sharp-looking bent spikes coming out of their heads and a couple on their wrists and backs, there was a sort of armored skin covering various parts of their bodies. As they turned from side to side, looking at the people around the school, I could also see they had tails as well, thick red tails with some kind of oversized razor blade on the end. Other than that they looked almost human, kind of anyway. I think they had five fingers, maybe six?

One of them also looked to have some kind of device fitting over the left side of his head with some type of glass wrapping around the front of his eye. I watched as he pressed a button on the side repeatedly and seemed to take some type of reading of the people around with it. In the stark silence around us, I could hear a quiet beeping from it. Other than that there was no sort of clothing or ornamentation of any kind on them. Quite frankly that didn't matter as I could discern no secondary, or primary, sex characteristics, though they would have seemed somewhat male. Maybe they were a sterile military force, or maybe they reproduced by fission, how the hell would I know? I hadn't exactly found out what the hell I was going to be fighting. My thoughts were interrupted for the millionth time today as the lead alien spoke in that same bizarre language. No one moved an inch for several tense seconds as the alien repeated what he said and, with no response likely to be coming, he cursed to himself; or maybe at us, I couldn't be sure.

Then, without warning, the alien spoke again, in flawless, unaccented English.

"Who was that?" he said.

Nobody moved or said a word.

"One of you here is more powerful than the rest, and we sensed him before and just now," the alien continued.

"Well?" he went, on sounding angry. "Who is it?!"

I stepped forward, and walked calmly toward them as people parted like the Red Sea in front of me. My tail slipped out into the open, pulling a short gasp from the people in the crowd as it moved about seemingly with a mind of its own. I stopped about ten feet from them, looking as strong as I could.

"You looking for me?" I asked.

All the aliens burst out laughing, and the one took readings of me with the device on his head I could hear the same faint beeping as shapes flashed over the eyepiece.

"What," said the leader, "you are but a child, you expect me to believe that you have those powers we felt? Do you have any proof to back up your claims?"

Something inside me told me I had just what they wanted to see.

"Only this...," I said slowly and I held up my left fist and extended my index finger, revealing the symbol to them as it seemed to shine in the morning sun.

Two of the aliens took a noticeable step back, and as few more I could feel were a little frightened.

"So, a full-breed Kalltorraiya-jin! To WHAT do I owe this honor?" the lead one said, foolishly unafraid of me. "You do realize your species is all but extinct, and I will have no problem finishing the job!"

I didn't move, trying to figure out what the best way to attack them would be, and watched as the alien walked up and stopped right in front of my face, towering at least 2 feet over me.

_His feet squeaked when he walked..._ I noticed, my eyes widening.

He shot a smirk at me and raised a hand. Before anything could be done about it he punched me full in the face and I flew at uncontrollably into a building with a loud crash, sending debris flying.

"Fucking shit that hurt. He's fast!" I said to myself, crawling out of the rubble that used to be a wall, dusting off my clothes and standing back up.

I looked around me, just then realizing that I had just crashed through solid concrete and was practically unhurt. Maybe I was a little tougher than I thought. I picked myself up and walked out of the mess towards the aliens. Everyone around was shocked out of their minds that that didn't kill me, and I was sure the aliens were, too.

"Well, so you want to play. Very well, I can do that," I said with newfound confidence now that I could see how strong I was. "Just a word of advice, don't piss me off, you might regret it!"

The other aliens laughed, and looked superiorly at me, rising into the air, as the leader gave a curt bow, mocking me.

"Don't be so sure of yourself, my young fool," he said to me. "You have no idea what you are up against."

_Neither do you, _I thought.

I raised my arms, balled my hands into fists and fell into my preferred fighting stance. I thought again about all those children that had died, thought about all those children I had failed, and how mad it made me. I felt my anger rising and I built upon it just like I was taught. The ground trembled, and a few small pieces of concrete hovered in the air and spun about me. My body started to glow white and my hair waved about and pointed skyward. The alien took yet more readings and this time the strange device beeped faster.

A few people now looked even more scared, who could blame them? As if evil aliens blowing up whole cities wasn't bad enough now one of their own seemed to be one of them. But I felt in complete control, and many attacks and techniques I didn't even know seemed suddenly to form into my mind. For just a second, a strange thought popped into my mind, and I jumped on it, building my confidence and hope with just that simple statement in my mind. I rose up into the air, feeling the newfound freedom in my abilities and realizing that I could actually fly.

_I just might be able to do this, _I thought.

With a shout I took off into the air and shot toward the aliens at full power, my Ki blazing around me. One of the aliens attempted to blast me and I deflected it right back toward him. Now they were genuinely scared, and I flew right into the group and took advantage of the confusion to punch one of them right in the chest; it felt like punching lead but the alien flew backwards nonetheless. The leader got out of the way and almost seemed to want to let his minions have all the fun, so I ignored him and went after the rest. Two aliens tried to make an attack and I dodged out of the way, landed on the ground, and threw a sloppy ball of energy to one of them. It just splashed off his head and he vanished in a flash of light. Trying to sense where he was, I miscalculated and found out soon enough where he was as a foot came crashing into the back of my head and I hit face-first on the ground. The alien took off into the sky, a thousand feet up, and I followed, launching energy blasts as I went, getting truly angry. I fought him briefly hand-to-hand, our fists and feet landing blows and blocking. We almost seemed to be evenly matched, and I was enjoying it. That was, until another one showed up and hit me into another building.

I could have easily managed one of them, but not ten. As if to respond to that fact, a third alien appeared in front of me and with a flash of light destroyed the entire structure around me as I tried to keep a shield of Ki around me to protect myself. There was another large explosion near me, and despite the flying chunks of concrete, our private audience of humans didn't move, amazed at the display. I blocked a blow from yet another enemy; dodged another one that was trying to grab my tail, and struck back, sending him into the air before forming a huge Ki bomb and launching it at him. The alien tried to deflect it and it exploded. Perfect. He seemed a bit off balance and, as the smoke cleared, I saw the opening and raised my arm to the sky.

_I hope this works, _I thought, getting desperate. I charged some energy into my hand and formed it into a flat disk that I started spinning at top speed above me like a whitish three-foot-wide saw blade.

"Die, you freak!" I shouted, throwing the disk.

It flew at him and he couldn't get out of the way in time and the disk of Ki swept past, slicing off his arm.

There was a moment of silence, and I could sense the feeling in the crowd below enlighten along with the sound of a few cheers, one probably from David.

"There, I believe you underestimated me!" I called out, addressing the remaining aliens as I stared down the one I had irrevocably maimed.

"Don't worry about that little cut, child," said the alien as he raised his bleeding stump and threw me a cocky smirk.

_There is no way..._

The wound suddenly glowed, swelled, and then, to my utter amazement, a new arm came splattering out with a sickening sound.

Several sounds of disgust rose from a few people and I watched in horror while the alien flexed his newly grown fingers, wet with a sort of slime, and clenched a fist, throwing me a cocky smirk.

A confident voice from behind said: "There, are you impressed?"

I was visibly shaking, unsure of how to proceed, regarding my foes in a whole new light.

_How am I supposed to beat them if they can regenerate after every attack?!_

The alien took off toward me and I fell back into my stance, but my confidence was a bit worn and it showed. My fighting skill was suffering and I was getting pounded. I tried to stop an attack from five of them this time but with a large blow I was sent flying into the side of another classroom wall, my body making an indentation a foot deep. Now I was getting really mad, no, royally pissed was more like it. I raised my Ki again and watched as the aliens assembled in a loose group in front of me. The wall around me disintegrated from the force of my energy and I flew out towards them. I had had enough, it was now or never. I was going to kill them all.

I threw out my arms straight and spread my legs into a wide, upside-down 'V', charging what little Ki I had left through my body. I started to yell, knowing it might help, and a flash of energy spread around me giving me a huge white aura. As I continued to charge up for an ultimate attack the ground began to shake again, the windows rattled and the ground heaved and cracked twenty feet below my feet.

_This will finish them. _

Several rocks flew up from the ground into the air and one of the damaged buildings collapsed under me. My energy was enormous; I might very well have been shaking the entire planet. I thrust my arms forward and formed my hands into a sideways open clam shape forming all my energy I had into my hands. A glow emerged and a ball began to glow and then fade, glow and the fade. The ball grew larger and large bolts of electricity crackled in all directions around me, striking the ground and digging trenches in the concrete. It grew into a super condensed foot wide ball, filling my hands with light, more green now than white. The aliens looked at me with forced confidence, for they knew this would kill them.

"YOUR TIME ON THIS PLANET IS THROUGH!" I screamed at them. Quickly choosing a name for my new energy attack I screamed out: "FINAL FLASH!" and pushed out the energy with everything I had.

It was almost more than I could have dreamed of. A massive one-hundred mile wide beam shot out at near the speed of light and streaked towards the aliens with a roaring sound. The pure, vibrant energy hit them and there was no way they could have gotten out of the way. The blinding light consumed them and the world shook in the display as the aliens were swallowed up by the energy and probably blown to atoms.

I knew that I was doing it, that I was destroying them, ending their reign of destruction, and it made me feel good. I knew one thing for sure at that time: it would all be over soon.

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Looks like those aliens are dust, what now? Stay turned to find out, and expect the unexpected in the next chapter. Please review, thanks!


	11. Transformed At Last

Hey all, I'm back, with a new chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last one:

Animeprincess1452 - Yep, gotta love the fighting. And I wasn't intending for him to get his powers _that_ fast, but I guess it worked if you liked it.

hsb - Okay, I have no idea who you are, but that's good! I have gotten few reviews from anyone past my little 'circle' and I like that other people are considering my work. I am really glad that you like it, and thanks so much for the review.

Oh, and here's the update!

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**Chapter 4: December 4, 2002 - Transformed At Last**

The whole area was filled with dust and dirt kicked up with my massive display of energy control. I watched as my beam, actually almost a discharge as I couldn't have sustained it, shot out into outer space, probably vaporizing a few birds and satellites along the way. I knew it was over, and I let my energy go down, breathing a sigh of relief as I set my feet back on the ground.

_I think I sometimes even impress myself, _I thought, _now all I need to do is wish- _I broke off, feeling a dread come over me as I sensed something.

They were alive!

The dust cleared, revealing the aliens standing in air with crossed arms. They looked a bit burnt, but otherwise completely unhurt.

"Im...possible...," I stuttered. "I...I put all my energy into that attack..."

After all that, my best was still not enough, and they closed in on me with a vengeance, ready to finish what they had started.

I had failed.

I powered down, realizing anything more would be futile, letting my aura fade away. I was powerless and had all but run out of energy, and they would quickly dispose of me. I felt close to nothing, not even pain, nothing but apathy as my body was blasted back and forth, through a building and then into a pile of rubble. I just lay there, I knew a few things might have been broken and I was bleeding from my mouth, nose, and eyes and from several deep gashes on the rest of my body. Blood dripped onto the scorched ground as I watched the aliens land around me.

I tried again to move, but I couldn't find the inspiration, and I fell back down to the dirt and broken concrete, paralyzed with pain and fear.

With a small laugh the alien leader gave a simple order to the rest: "Kill them all! Save that boy for last!"

So began the massacre. It was like all the times before, on the TV, only worse, closer and much more personal. The aliens powered up and flew about destroying everything, and everyone. I stood up awkwardly, holding my injured arm and looked on in helpless horror as every one I knew was brutally killed.

I looked to my right and suddenly saw Katharine run past, not toward me she might have at any other time, but away from me, as if to say that I was no longer capable of protecting her; which I couldn't. An alien landed in front of her, and she turned toward me, the look in her eyes conveying helpless terror as a beam of energy from the alien struck her back and exploded out her chest. She fell to her knees, blood streaming from her mouth, and the hole in her chest revealing the bloody ground behind her. She collapsed to the dirt, coughed and just died. I wanted to look away, horrified, and feeling so culpable, but I just couldn't. The screams grew in intensity and I watched as David walked up to her, kneeling down to touch her, in disbelief, before looking accusingly at me. My heart fell to my feet, and I closed my eyes, opening them in time to see a second alien land next to him. I held out a hand, trying to will away the inevitable, as David stared back at the alien, unafraid, and stood strong as his head was cleaved off with a single blow.

I stood, trembling with guilt, as his head bounced on the ground and rolled to only a few feet in front of me, that same accusing look in his eyes, his beautiful, sky-blue eyes, persisting even then. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't stop it, and I swore he blinked once; the severed head of my best friend and so much more, blinked once at me, and would never see anything again for the rest of time.

He was dead, and it was no fault but my own.

I had lost everything, and all the emotions I had kept bottled up inside me since my childhood came out and ravaged my mind and spirit. I fell to my knees and held my head in my hands, screaming, as the tears came out in rivers, soaking the ground beneath me with diluted blood. I couldn't stand it any more, the psychological pain racked my body and I shouted to the sky at all the horrific insanity of it all as the human race would be killed around me and I was powerless.

Something deep inside snapped, all my emotions had released something that I was unaware of and it lifted me to my feet, my energy rising exponentially. I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles were turning white and my fingers dug into my palms, spilling more blood down my wrists. The ground cracked around my feet and pieces of concrete five feet wide lifted up and exploded as my aura grew and surrounded me filling the entire city with its vibrant glow. One of the aliens took an energy reading with the device over his eye and it beeped fast and then exploded. All the aliens stopped dead in their tracks as my energy continued to rise. My body shook and I felt a power of an intensity that I had never felt before come from nowhere. The ground shattered and melted beneath my feet as all the windows in the school exploded and a nearby tree burst into flames. My aura expanded and then fell back, clinging to me as my hair spiked higher upward and began to glow. With a final blast of energy my whole world tipped and spun about me and flashed to green.

Merciful, beautiful green.

**- - -**

I wasn't quite sure what had happened at first; my hair and tail were now an un-earthly greenish and my hair was spikier than even. My Ki aura had gone from white to an ethereal greenish-blue glow surrounding me and flaming about my body. My energy levels must have increased ten-fold and every injury I had sustained, every little bit of pain was as good as gone. I felt brand new, like I had just woken up from a long and restful sleep. And I was becoming sure that it was just that, something inside of me had been sleeping and I had woken it up, somehow, with my extreme emotional state and it had come out to make me what I stood there to be.

I held my hands in front of me, staring in disbelief. I was awesomely powerful, it was so unreal, I felt like I could tear the entire planet in two, and I knew then that I had reached my potential and become everything I could become. It was like a weird upgrade of sorts, like I wasn't a normal Kalltorraiya-jin anymore, but a Super-Kalltorraiya-jin.

I was transformed.

The aliens were dumbstruck, one of them yelled out a string of frantic phrases and I got the main part of it from his head. Something about 'the green' and that they were all doomed to a horrible death, one I would be pleased to give them.

"Relax," said the leader. "You are blowing this way out of proportion!"

I stood tall and flared out my Ki, my aura expanding and growing in intensity, feeling like a god as the grass burnt away around my feet as I took each step, leaving blackened footprints.

"Nice light show, but it won't do you any good," he said to me as I walked right up to them and watched the others cower in fear.

I didn't need to speak; I just raised an arm and pointed my outstretched hand behind me, at the virtually untouched auditorium, letting my actions do the talking. They looked at me, thinking that I couldn't do it.

They thought I was still like a human, they thought I couldn't kill and that it made me weak, unlike them. My mind wasn't affected by the transformation, but if those dammed humans got in my way now, so help me, let them die.

I smirked and charged a tiny, green blast and just let it shoot out to the exposed building, putting in about as much effort as I would in crushing an ant. Several screams came out of what was left of the school and I easily ignored them as it hit with a massive explosion. The entire area was blinded with the glow of the explosion as it filled the area with smoke and debris flew through the air and bounced off the ground. The light faded and the smoke partially cleared revealing the auditorium that had a huge hole in it and was otherwise blown apart and a massive mushroom cloud rose from the distant mountains, probably destroying a few houses on the way in an effective demonstration of my newfound power.

"I don't think you know what I have become," I said to them.

I'm sure more than a few people had died, but I wasn't too concerned with it at the moment. The aliens looked like they had just seen their impending doom and were extremely frightened now, visibly shaking. All except the leader, who didn't seem to care; he stood with his arms crossed and looked on.

_Why does he never fight? I can't figure what he's hiding, _I thought._ I'll show them, him last! _

With a flash that blew apart the ground under me, I shot up into the sky and confronted the aliens face-to-face. They stood in front of me and a few of the ten looked like they would be wetting themselves if they could. The leader decided enough was enough and, with a single command, sent the first two of his minions after me. I steeled myself, dropped back into my stance, and prepared to fight. I watched as the aliens flew towards me and tried to form an attack.

_No, it can't be an illusion. They seem to be moving slower, what is this?_

Alien number one dove down and tried to punch me and I easily dodged his attempt. He seemed mad and continued to throw blows and I dodged them all with remarkable ease, his fists and feet missing my body. He tried again and I blocked his fist with a single finger, then he tried a kick to my head and I again found myself effortlessly blocking his blow with my arm by pure reaction alone. I looked next to me and the second one then punched me as hard as he could in the jaw; I didn't even feel it. I smiled for the first time in a while and he backed away. He tried again to attack, this time with his friend and I vanished from right in front of them, only to appear behind.

"Let me show you how it's done!" I yelled throwing a fist into both of their backs, flinging them to the ground.

Before they hit I shot down, almost to the ground, and kicked one into a building, sending a blast after him, blowing him and everything else in the immediate area into atoms. The other alien tried to escape but I cut him off and never gave him a chance, I formed a ball of energy in the palm of my hand and swept it to the side, letting the Ki form a green sword. Bringing it up and then down I sliced the alien in half and watched in satisfaction as he slid slowly into two pieces. The alien's blood flew into all directions as I sliced him into small chunks smiling at the remarkable ease.

The remaining aliens stood transfixed as I destroyed what was left with a beam of energy, retracted the Ki sword and waited for a response. Wasting no time, the leader sent three more of them toward me and I watched carefully as they tried to do something, but never reached me as I efficiently blasted the two to my sides into dust and waited as the fifth alien looked at me with sheer terror in his eyes. I prepared to break him apart but didn't have that chance as two more grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. I couldn't move. The alien in front looked happier now that he had regained control and he flew up punching me in the stomach as hard as he could. Blow after blow rained down onto my exposed middle and I just smiled at him, one thing I had learned was that Ki is used best when projected from the hand, but I knew how to blast someone from anywhere. He stopped and looked at me just in time to see a shine from my obsidian pupils as I blasted him away with twin beams shot from my eyes.

The aliens behind tried to hold me but I forced my arms up and grabbed theirs, tearing them off! The aliens, thoroughly terrified, tried to escape but I batted one aside and phased out of sight appearing back in front of him. I sent an energy ball his way and he dodged it, only to hear the scream of his comrade behind him, dying. He turned to try and run, but didn't get far as my foot exploded through his back and out his chest, blood flying from his mouth. With a small kick I sent him into the air and easily destroyed him.

The only three minor aliens left flew up high into the sky in formation and the one in the middle put his hands to his right side, one on top of the other. The other two aliens mimicked his actions and they said something.

"Ka.........me.........he..........me..........," they chanted in unison.

A blue ball of energy began to concentrate in between each of their hands and then the one in the middle put them in front of him as the other two put their hands next to his to add their energy together. There was a flash and the blue colored beam shot toward me as they yelled out: "HA!"

The ground started to shake as the beam headed down to where it would surely destroy the entire planet. I decided to give the technique a try and charged the very same thing.

"Ka......me......ha......me...................HA!" I yelled, replicating their actions and shooting up my beam to meat theirs.

The two columns of energy collided in midair and began to push together, forming a massive ball of pure energy as neither side would let up the sustained force. I pushed some more energy into my end and it was far too much for the aliens to handle and the beam shot through theirs, out into space and they were disintegrated up in the atmosphere, but not before one of them managed to escape. This one seemed to be a bit stronger than the rest and he hit me from behind, I recovered quickly and struck back, deflecting a few of his blows and then punched my fist into his chest. I lifted the helpless creature into the air and charged some Ki into my hand, blowing him to bits from the inside.

The alien's head landed at the feet of his leader, and he just stood, staring uncaring at it as his subordinate spoke in a choked whisper.

"Please...help me..."

I alighted easily on the ground, my Ki aura flaming in green about me and the concrete cracked where I landed. What was left of the alien again asked for help from the leader and I walked up, the shadow from my foot covering his head before I brought it down, crushing it with a splattering of blood.

The entire exchange had taken less than a minute, and I had barely broken a sweat. It was true then, there could be no limit to my power and I regarded the only remaining alien as the last obstacle to saving the whole world. I wasn't going to lose now, I was all-powerful and I was triumphant in destroying all of them; all of them but a single one, and I stared him down, trying to uncover his secret confidence.

I was just too strong, and I realized that what I had could never again be matched by anyone, or anything. I clenched my fists, flashed my Ki, and narrowed my eyes.

_Soon, _I thought. _Soon you will be gone as well. Your death will avenge all those you have killed. I won't stop until you are destroyed._

He didn't move, truly unafraid, and we stared each other down in classic stance amid the debris, our energy shaking the burnt and bloody ground upon which we stood.

It was going to be a real fight from then on.

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See? He told them not to piss him off; they did and look what happened! Well, this is the last chapter that I had written before I started rewriting the whole thing, so that means I have to start writing from scratch now, and I dunno how that will affect my writing speed. Still, keep me inspired and keep those reviews coming! Thanks for reading.


	12. Clash of The Superpowers

Holy crap…it has been way too long a time since I have updated this story, but better late than never as I would say. Anyway, I am writing a book that I hope will actually get published right now, as well as having lots of tests for school and stuff, so I won't have too much time for fanfiction. Still, I hope I will still be able to write stuff every once in a while, so that I can get it to you people to read.

Thanks to my reviewers:

trunks and goten - I know all of your reviews have died and gone away, courtesy of the evil fanfiction people in charge of things, but I know you reviewed the last chapter, so thanks for it. I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much.

KitsuneAkai13 - I guess I just call them a circle of reviewers since they are like the few people that consistently review for my stories. Yes, I know it was evil, but if he hadn't seen his best friend (boyfriend?) die like that he wouldn't have gone SKJ and creamed the aliens! If you liked that fight, wait until you see the one I this chapter.

And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeres the next chapter!

>>>

**Chapter 5: December 4, 2002 - Clash of the Superpowers**

We stood there for a very long time, just staring. I was doing my best to look intimidating, as well as trying to figure out what my enemy's power could be like under that seemingly-unshakable facade. And he stared right back, taking in the threat of my new powers, and deciding if he would be stupid enough to try and take me on.

The silence was nearly deafening.

Deciding that the alien wasn't going to say anything, out of fear or stupidity, or maybe both, I spoke first, breaking the calm between us:

"Before I tear you apart, I want to know who you are and why are you here."

There was a short pause, and the alien seemed to relax a little, perhaps deciding that this might delay his own death.

"A little confident, Kalltorraiya-jin?" he said with an air of superiority. "You won't be doing any tearing, but, before I destroy you, I guess maybe I owe you some explanation about who your killer is."

I was half-tempted to raise a hand and blow his head clean away for even daring to insinuate that he could put a scratch on me, but I was still curious, so I declined to take any action and just listened.

"My name is Aushkin. I am one of the Shishkan, a race that is the most powerful in the universe," he continued," and long ago we were in a war with yours. Being the better of the two, we won, and all the Kalltorraiya-jin were destroyed..."

That story was slightly different from the one I had heard from the Voice, but I didn't care, his version made me believe that he had been there, which made me think that perhaps these bastards never died of old age.

"Which is why I don't know where you came from, but I will have no trouble finishing the job, and avenging my own race," the alien finished.

"So, are you the last one of your race as well?" I asked.

"Humph, that is none of your business," he responded.

"Well then, I'll take that as a 'yes'. So, I guess this means one of our races will never survive this day, either the Kalltorraiya-jin or Shishkan will end now," I shot back.

"You are like no other Kalltorraiya-jin that I have ever seen," the alien went on, looking pensive, "and I have killed many of them. I actually once saw the first one of you with green hair, the only one before you, I believe, but he was...different."

"In what way?" I said, demanding to know.

"Your eyes," he said, "they are not the same, and I don't know why. Just what are you?"

I stood strong, looking him dead in the eye and refusing to show any fear.

"You can destroy planets, kill whole races, but you can never destroy what I am.

"I am the hope of the universe; I am the answer to all living things that cry out for peace; I am the protector of the innocent; I am the light in the darkness; I am truth," I shouted, extending my Ki and shaking the ground.

Getting no response I continued, gaining momentum with my words, "Ally to good! Nightmare to you!"

"Shut up!" the alien retorted with a slight wave of his hand. "You will fall to your knees and worship me like a god before this day is done."

He began to rise up into the sky, and I followed, dust whisping around my feet as my Ki took me into the air. One thousand feet up, and scarcely ten feet away, I regarded the last enemy that I would have to face in my life with an air of perfection, knowing full well what I saw in the future I beheld deep in my mind.

_I will never lose._

I watched as he looked right back at me, preparing himself. He clenched his fists, and the muscles in his body strained and the Ki level I could feel from him rose steadily as a blood-red aura grew around. It was clear this alien couldn't have had half of my power, but in the last few seconds, as the rocks on the ground trembled and the glow from him began to become blinding, he was getting stronger like nothing I had ever imagined. Like me, he seemed to be pulling power from absolutely nowhere.

"Still think you can beat me?" the alien asked, falling back into a stance in the air in front of me. "I can see it in your eyes that you are afraid."

_Maybe this much is true, _I thought. _But I can read it in your _mind_ that you are scared too. _

Taking it as a cue that we were going to start at our strongest and beat it out from there, I raised my own Ki in a similar fashion, that rapidly-becoming-familiar green glow emanating from every inch of my body. I felt myself grow ever stronger, and let the energy rise within me until I felt it plateau and I stopped, realizing we were both as strong as we would get.

People down below started to pick themselves off the ground and looked up to the two creatures they saw high above them, now nothing more than a slightly mixed red and green glow that shook the ground around them and grew steadily. Tapping into my Kalltorran half, I could look into their minds; I could see what they were seeing before them; I could feel what they were feeling in their hearts.

It was time to begin the last and greatest fight in the history of the universe. I would make the world tremble at the sheer power I held within me, and by the time I was done, that dammed alien would bow down to _me_!

All those innocent people-

_The children...  
_

that they had killed would be avenged. I would make him pay for the nightmare he had unleashed on the people of the world!

I fell into my stance as well, gauging the strengths and weaknesses of my opponent through the blazing fire of green and red around us. If I hadn't been trying to concentrate I would have thought that this must look like the Christmas from Hell.

Without warning, the alien struck first, coming right for me with a flash, a fist outstretched. I thought I would have been able to dodge it like those from all the other aliens, but it became clear when I was doubled over with pain that he had hit my unprotected stomach like it was nothing. He was just so fast that I couldn't avoid it, and for a split second I felt vulnerable, until I flew back to avoid the next punch and then forwards again to attack.

My first blow was a kick right to the side of his quite-hard and spiky head, but he wasn't fazed so I punched toward his face. He reached up and caught my fist like it was the simplest exercise in the world and ground the bones in my hand together as he pulled it downward. He smiled at me, and I realized that he was treating me like a helpless child - toying with me like I was just something to be messed around with.

I clenched my teeth and my anger rose, my power following closely behind, and I kicked out again, making sure he would feel it. Our powers were surely the same now and he fell back, striking back toward me and I was able to block his fist and hit again.

This fight was quickly becoming fun, I realized, and our fists and feet blurred around us, blocking and being blocked so fast I couldn't see them. I was moving completely out of reflex, learning his techniques and improving my own fighting style just by seeing him do it. Looking into his mind, however dark and scary it had to be, at least on the surface I seemed to be capable of predicting his next movement ever so slightly.

Falling back, he shot an energy blast toward me and I hit it to the side with my hand, watching it hit a mountain far below and explode in a massive ball of red fire. However many people that might have died was beyond my ability to calculate, but better them than me. I don't think I really would have stopped to care, besides, going down there to save the lives of the stupid humans would probably get _me_ killed.

I looked down to my partially burnt hand and the alien looked right at me, still smirking, as if to say he was still holding back. I didn't believe it, I could easily see I was starting to win; even if it seemed as if he had the upper hand, I was totally undefeatable.

I shot forward again, catching the alien by surprise and punched him right in the center of that ass-ugly face, sending him staggering backward in the air. I started moving my hands in front of me at super speed, gathering energy in a series of complicated movements as I invented another attack on the spot. The alien seemed almost confused, and couldn't do anything before I finished and crossed my arms across my chest and then thrust my hands forward, touching the thumbs and forefingers together and launching out a blinding energy blast. When it hit there was a huge explosion and I watched in satisfaction as the alien went flying into some building down below, smoking like he had caught fire.

_Burn you bastard, _I thought. _Burn...Burning Attack..._

I figured if I ever used that energy attack again I might call it by that name, it was as good as any, and I laughed as I went down to the rubble that used to be the building, thinking I might not ever have to use it again.

But the alien wasn't though yet, and exploded out of the rubble, kicking me away in anger. I hit the ground on my feet and they dug small trenches in the dirt as I stopped myself before I was forced to duck to avoid the alien's fist aimed at my head. I saw an opening and punched upward, catching him in the stomach and again sent him careening helplessly away from me. Not wasting another second, I took chase and hit him in the air before I was hit myself and we went flying in opposite directions. The alien started to charge a ball of energy and I did the same, throwing it toward him as he threw his. Somewhere a few hundred feet above what was left of the school they collided and pushed back and forth before destabilizing and exploding, shattering some buildings below and shaking the ground with a huge _boom_.

Taking advantage, I flew upwards toward the alien, and just as he was about to hit me, I imagined transporting myself behind him, not surprised in the least when it worked, and I hit him in the back with an elbow before kicking him aside. It wasn't another half of a second before he was back and I couldn't help wondering how much punishment he could take before breaking in pieces.

We fought more, and I forgot momentarily about his huge tail, much to my dismay, when he flipped forward and hit me in the face with it, almost cutting me in half with the foot long knife blade on the end of it. He tried it again and I dodged back, getting a small cut on my chest and then his fist found a way to my stomach and then he phased away from my next attack. Unable to figure out where he went, I sent out a energy blast but he wasn't there and I was sent flying downward.

Hitting somewhere in the middle of the parking lot, making a huge crater in the pavement and sending a few cars flying. I stood up in time to see the alien land nearby and he picked up a car and threw it towards me. With a yell, I cut it in half with a Ki sword and the two halves went on either side, pieces of metal whirring through the air a moment before the whole thing exploded around me.

Unhurt, I struck forwards, still holding my deadly blade in my hands and slashed downwards, almost hitting the dumbstruck alien, and my next slash sent out a wave of energy, slicing a few buildings in half and cutting off his arm. My celebrations didn't last, however, and he struck back at me, his newly regenerated arm coming out of the bloodied stump and hitting me backwards. When he shot forward I punched out and he did the same, his fist meeting mine and creating a shock wave that crushed buildings around us. Matching each other perfectly, our fists and feet hit each other's at lightning speed, shaking the whole area and sending rocks and rubble flying everywhere.

I blocked another blow and took a step back, breaking a nearby light post off its base with an elbow and grabbed the ten foot long metal beam, hitting the alien in the head with it several times with loud _clang_ sounds. He staggered backwards, and I turned the pole around, thrusting it through the alien's stomach and out his back as blood flowed from his mouth. He yelled out in pain and I punched him in the head multiple times before he threw a small blast at our feet. As the dust started to clear, he was nowhere to be found and I looked back and forth, fists poised, ready to keep fighting.

I heard a sound and looked toward it, gasping in shock as I saw the metal pole that I had just put through my foe clattered to the ground with no alien attached. Not being able to do anything about it, I was hit in the back and then I felt his hand on the back of my head, pushing me face first into the ground. I spun right side up again and blocked a few more blows with my feet before flying up in the air and sending down a series of huge blasts at him. The explosions filled the air with deafening roars and the green fireball rose into the sky from where the alien was. He shot out of the smoke suddenly to elbow me in the face, and I backflipped in air to hit him back and then he stopped.

"I'm not bowing yet you Shishkan bastard," I said, smirking.

"And you aren't tearing me apart either you Kalltorraiya-jin idiot," he shot back.

We stopped right there, about ten feet apart like we had started, and stared each other down, gauging the injuries we had caused. I'm sure I was bleeding from about a thousand different places, but I still felt fine, in fact even better than fine. He was burnt in several places from my blasts, but all the major holes I had put in him were regenerated back like new.

It pissed me off that I was made of flesh and blood and he seemed to be made up of some kind of repairable armored skin that I could break apart but not permanently.

"You're just a stupid insect," I yelled toward the alien in lieu of my thoughts.

He looked angered at that, but didn't respond and just stared at me as I refused to blink first, wondering if I could win the staring contest since I had never seen any of the aliens blink before. For all I knew they didn't have eyelids, or they were invisible membranes or something weird like that. It was clear from what I had seen so far that they were built for fighting. I wasn't really, but I was certainly more powerful than that foolish creature could ever imagine.

I took a moment to look below us, at the broken school that we two had blasted apart, most of the buildings destroyed and several large craters from the energy blasts still smoking. I was far to high up to see if there were any people left alive down there, but I still didn't care. I had almost forgotten what I was fighting for, except for pride, before my sight shifted over to an even larger crater. I couldn't figure out what that one had come from, seeing as it was a ways away from where we had been fighting, before the sickening realization came to me.

_I know what used to be there...the elementary school! _I thought.

It had been from when they first arrived blasting apart everything at random, and I clenched my fists in rage, my tail twitching around my waist as I thought.

_There must have been...hundreds of children in attendance today...and they...all blasted apart like nothing important. Like...nothing at all._

Then and only then did I remember what I was fighting for; only then did I remember that I had to destroy this alien for all the children that had been killed by him and his dammed comrades. They were nothing but killing machines that I had to stop, and I was the only one that could stop them. If I lost the fight, there would be nothing left of anything.

I decided then, that if I couldn't succeed by just fighting like I had been, I had to think of something else. The alien was just standing in air, mocking me and saying in his head that he was waiting for me to attack so he could finish me off, become immortal, and blow up the Earth.

I thought it was just about time for me to invent another attack...

>>>

I hope you liked the fighting, I worked for a long time on it. So, just what is this crazy attack that Jake has planned? Well, you will have to wait for the next chapter to see what it will be. I can give you this hint: it will be something very big and very green.

See you all next chapter!


	13. The Nightmare Won't End

Hey all, I'm back with another chapter to read, and even though there is only like…one person reading it, I don't care too much. I will still say you "people" because I know others do read this and just don't review, but whatever. This chapter shall prove very interesting indeed, and I hope you will enjoy it. More insane fighting ahead!

Thanks to my reviewer:

trunks and goten - Yeah, I actually rip off a lot of quotes that I like, because, frankly, I can! You will, I guarantee, see another one you recognize in this chapter! And here's even more fighting for you to enjoy…

>>>

**Chapter 6: December 4, 2002 - The Nightmare Won't End**

I knew that I wasn't bound to win the way that I was trying; every attack I dished out was absorbed and then the alien healed. What I really needed was a way to blast him to tiny bits and then finish him off with what power I had left. Though such an energy blast might drain every little bit of Ki that I had left in my body wasn't what I was trying to think about at the moment, but I still had to consider it.

One thing I knew for sure though, I was very glad that I could read my opponent's mind, and he couldn't read mine, instead of the other way around. If he could see what I was thinking, he would know I was getting desperate for a way to win, and might know to kill me now before I could come up with a brainy idea. As it was, I noticed in his mind that he was getting bored, and I thought if I might just be able to make a game out of my next move, I stood a chance with catching him in a trap.

This alien might be good at fighting and made of iron, but he still had the brains of a fucking grasshopper; I could fool him easily.

"I can sense you are getting bored with this fight, as am I," I said quickly, not revealing the hand I had behind my poker-face.

"Quite right, I think I shall destroy you now," the alien said blithely.

_Not the response I was looking for! _I thought in a slight panic.

"But don't you think you would get bored just blowing up random planets after I'm gone? I think you would have more fun if we played a little game," I put forth.

"Yes, killing weak beings for millennia does get rather dull; torturing you would prove a lot more fun. How about a contest of energy beams? You shoot yours at me and I return with one of my own, the game is over when you or I die or the planet crumbles, whichever comes first."

I still didn't like that idea, so I decided to play with his pride and see what happened.

"No, too messy. How about sudden-death? That is, if you are up to a _challenge_. It goes like this: I blast you with everything I got, and if you survive you hit me with everything you got. If I survive, I blast you again, and so on until one of us is dead and-"

"An excellent idea," he interrupted, "except I am going to go first."

"Hell no!" I cried out. "We have to flip a coin!"

"What is this…coin flipping?" the alien asked, confused.

"Here," I explained, pulling a coin out of my pocket. "I flip this and when it lands on the ground, if this side shows-"

I indicated heads.

"-I win, and if the other side shows-"

I pointed out tails.

"-you win. Fair enough for you?"

"Sounds ridiculous," he retorted, "but I will entertain your stupid Kalltorraiya-jin games just to humor you. It will be the last favor you get from me."

"Very well then. Here we go."

I floated down to the burnt ground and he followed, and as I flipped the coin in air and watched it drop, I thought: _This is too easy!_

It bounced once and then again, spun around on a piece of concrete, and once I was sure he was focused completely on it, I used the tiniest amount of telekinesis, pushing it over to heads.

"There, I go first," I said, smiling.

"Whatever you say, just hurry up so I can finish you."

He flew up a hundred or so feet in the air and powered up, the red glow providing a perfect mark for my aim. I just hoped that this would work.

The ground around me exploded as a shock wave made a crater under my feet when I let my power loose, my aura expanding around me as I charged all the Ki I could muster.

Holding my hands in front of me I pushed the energy into my hands, and the ball of vibrant green power began to grow in between them. What few people were left alive ran away screaming as the ground shook and cracks ten feet wide broke open the Earth around me. Whole mountains fell to pieces and the buildings that were still standing in the city started to collapse altogether.

The ball of energy grew to the size of a large house above my head, and I once I knew it had all the power I could put into it, so super concentrated and unstable that a fly buzzing into it might make it explode and break apart the whole planet.

_What should I call this one? _I mused briefly. _The Super Green Beam of Doom and Atomizer of All Things Shishkan?_

The energy ball was starting to burn my fingers and I knew I couldn't hold it much longer, so I pushed it away from me with a yell.

"Screw the name!" I screamed, and I let it all go.

The ball writhed as if ready to explode, elongated, and as I pushed it up, it launched off as a beam of light so huge and bright it might have dwarfed the sun. As I felt the energy leave my hands, flying up at light-speed to meet its target, I knew he could never dodge something that huge and powerful.

But I could barely concentrate, and underneath the massive green finger of God, wider than the Earth itself, reaching up into the heavens above, I was screaming. To me it felt like, instead of just my energy leaving my body, it was my life and soul as well, and once I started it going, I couldn't stop it. It kept flowing out of me, feeling like it were my very blood and life being pulled, ripped, sucked out of my body and I couldn't stop it if I had wanted it to. It kept going, for an agonizingly long time, so it seemed, thought it couldn't possibly been more than a minute, and then, when I thought my body would be liquefied by the force and fly up on the end of the beam, I ran out of power.

With a lightning-like crackle and a flash, the beam vanished from in front of me as the last of it streaked into space. Squinting against the light, I looked up to see the small green star shrink to a pinprick of light and then disappear completely, fading out millions of light-years away. Smiling ever so slightly, I collapsed to the ground, still barely able to stay alive, looking down at my hands, which were burnt and smoking from the huge volume of energy that had flowed through them.

There was a long pause, and I couldn't see or hear or feel that dammed alien anymore, and I swore that he was gone.

>>>

I just couldn't believe that it was over, and I thought that there was something wrong, that he had somehow got away, that my power somehow wasn't enough, but it was, and I had done it. But just like before, I could sense something, like when I had used the Final Flash against all of the aliens earlier in the day.

_My gosh, _I thought, _has it really only been one day? It's more like one night if you ask me...or one nightmare..._

But even as I thought this, even as I picked myself off of the ground, and told myself the deed was done, I realized with horror that it was one nightmare that wouldn't end anytime soon

I looked up in time to see something, and watched a small dot in the sky grow larger and larger and it formed into an alien, or at least part of one, before crashing into the ground a ways away from me. I flew up into the air, and looked down into the newly formed crater, seeing that the alien was missing an arm and nearly all his lower half, as well as some of his head, but was still alive. I almost wasted time laughing at the damage I had inflicted on this dammed grasshopper that thought it was invincible, but then I remembered that he could regenerate.

"Damn you!" I screamed as what was left of the alien started to move.

Flying high up into the sky, filled with the most indescribable rage, I stopped miles in the air, my Ki aura raging around me and without thinking I raised my hand and then pointed two fingers upwards. Before I could realize what I was doing, instinct took over my body and energy flowed into them, some kind of bizarre energy that felt like molten lava as it moved down my arm and came out the fingers. I had never seen anything like it, as I watched the ball of energy hover in air a few inches away from my fingertips. It was only about the size of a softball, was red like lava – burned like it too – and crackled with evil electricity. In an instant I knew exactly what it was.

A memory, something the Voice had told me during my training, about how he had once been the first Super Kalltorraiya-jin, and how he had destroyed the Shishkan world with a ball of red energy, surfaced. He said it was designed to hit a planet and send waves of energy across the surface, killing everything a split-second before blowing the planet to bits. Nothing could survive it.

If I used it, I realized, it would be over, the alien would be dust and nothing more would come of him for the rest of time. I would have won and the only casualty would be the planet I was flying over. What should I care anyway? I could breathe in space, I knew it, and so it wasn't any of my concern.

I fell back, pointed my fingers and the deadly ball of energy at the ground below and the alien that it would hit and destroy shortly before blowing up the entire Earth and erasing him from history.

_He's going to regenerate any second; I have to do it now!_

I was ready to do it; I was ready to win the battle and destroy the world which I had fought so long and so hard to save…but I couldn't. I thought that, even if I did win, even if the day was a victory for me, it wouldn't be for anyone else. And all those people…those children…that were still alive would be dead and gone.

_Dead and gone_, I reasoned in my turmoiled mind, _by my own hand._

I let it go, and the energy faded into nothingness, destroying, not the planet, but perhaps my last chance to beat the alien. I just couldn't do it.

Down below, the alien floated in the air and with a _splat_ of liquid new legs came out of him, followed closely by an arm and then just like that he was good as new. Flying up in a second to meet me in midair, staring me down and still, still looking superior, he regarded me. Just a little more power and he would have been gone…but it hadn't happened, and I was running out of clever ideas.

"That was quite a display you put on," he mused out loud. "You almost won right there, but…no way. I will never lose."

He hit me down to the ground, hit me harder than I had ever been hit before, and I couldn't see or hear or breathe anything but the cold, wet dirt around me by the time I even realized what had happened. I felt myself lose the transformation, my last hope for survival leaving me as I needed it most, and the green color faded from around me as I felt a tugging pain on my head and I was lifted up. The alien looked at me, smiling that same cocky smile from before, holding me up by my hair and spoke:

"This is a rather amusing game you wanted to play. Very well, it's my turn."

Lifting me higher, he held me up and turned me around, punching my back again and again, until I was spitting up blood and thought my back was broken. Letting me fall to my knees in pain, he kept a hold of my head and charged a ball of energy into his other hand, pointing it at my face and letting it loose.

I closed my eyes – what more could I do? – as the energy beam flowed out of him, melting away my face, slicing open large gashes in my cheeks and forehead, breaking me apart. It ended as quickly as it started, and as I was let go, I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath amid the stabbing pain in my head, the blood dripping down my face and onto the ground.

Was this my fate? To be thrown about, blasted about, tortured like a petty animal to the amusement of my captor and enemy? I did not have a single thought in my mind that I was created to die such a grisly and pointless death; certainly I was not born to lose this fight!

Mustering all my strength I had, I sat up in my place, mocking the alien with the sheer power of my will and inability to give up no matter how close I was to death. He looked right back at me, angrier than I had ever seen him, and from that moment on I knew I had won it all. He was expecting me to be groveling at his feet, begging for mercy, or at least unconscious and bleeding on the ground. But I was making him to be a fool by refusing to do any of the three.

"You have had enough," he lied through his unconfidence, "now it's time to finish you."

He pulled back his arm, and then let it loose as a punch to my head, giving everything he had, one that would have killed me if I had let it, but I would NOT let it happen. Never.

His fist neared me and I lifted my own arm, catching it in my hand and holding it there, absorbing the shock of the blow like nothing. I had broken though the final wall of his superiority complex, and soon after I realized he would lose, he knew it too.

I twisted my hand down, pushing back, and with a crack I broke his arm, using less and less of my power for each motion, feeling like the fighting was becoming the most natural thing in the world for me; it was as if it was what I was made for. He jumped backwards in pain, holding his fractured arm before cracking it back into place and looking like he had become almost as angry as I could. Unlike me, however, when he got mad it made him weaker, not stronger, and it showed.

"You are nothing! NOTHING!" he screamed as loud as he could.

"That's where you are wrong," I said, standing up, "I am more than you will ever be. I am a Kalltorraiya-jin!"

"How dare you!" he spat out, shaking with rage.

"You came here looking for a fight, one that you could have fun with and win, but your fun is over, your fight is too," I continued.

I powered up, yelling my power out and feeling the familiar feeling, that I was about to transform, come back. My aura spiraled to life around me, sending the alien cowering for cover and with a flash I was SKJ again.

"You may have invaded my home world, killed its inhabitants, and tried to destroy me," I yelled.

"You may have tried to take my friends, my family, and my life away from me. You succeeded only in taking away those I held so close to my heart, and you almost did the same in taking away my body in this plain of existence and my soul as well. But there's one thing a Kalltorraiya-jin always keeps: HIS PRIDE!"

With a scream, I let out all my power, my anger and righteousness taking me to a strength that I could never have reached without realizing that which I would lose if I didn't beat that alien bastard once and for all. I felt the cuts on my face widen as I screamed, fresh blood running down and into my eyes, blinding me for a second, turning my world into one of red before evaporating away to nothing. But I didn't care, I couldn't feel any pain or hurt or anything but the clear face of my goal and I knew exactly, exactly what I had to do to win.

My twisted hands clenched into fists, and the Ki was blazing about my body, shaking the planet, as I shot forward, hitting the alien high into the sky and I sent a single blast after him. With a titanic explosion it hit, and from the fading glow of the green light I saw that there was nothing left of the alien but his head and half a neck and I flew forward as fast as I could to meet it.

I punched his head across the sky, disappeared and transported to miles away in time to turn around and kick out purely by instinct, hitting it again. I went back and forth, like a super fast game of Pong and hit the alien's head again and again, hearing him scream again and again and breaking it to pieces.

I thought I heard him say something; something like that it wasn't over, like that even when he was gone that it wasn't over. Something followed by the word "son". But it didn't matter, and I hit his head down, and met it on the ground where I hit it up, out into space and prepared for the final blow.

Holding up one hand, letting that instinct take over again, I charged that same red ball that could destroy whole planets onto two fingers, creating an identical one on the fingers of my other hand.

"I'll see you in hell!" I yelled after him.

With a flash, I shot the energy balls up into the air, and they traveled with a crackling of power, sending waves of energy down and cracking the ground around my feet as the air was melted around them, leaving trails into the sky and out into space as they hit their target at the same time.

The light was amazing, blindingly beautiful, as a reddish explosion spreading in the air and filling the whole of the sky, and I swore I heard the alien scream. The light started to fade and the whole of the planet shook as the shock waves from the fiery explosion reached the Earth.

I fell to the ground, for the millionth time that day, and dropped out of Super mode, watching, carefully, as another dot in the sky grew and then crashed to the ground. Dragging myself to the nearby hole, I looked inside, knowing that there was not more that a little left, and saw nothing but a smoking, blackened skull of the alien. Gathering power from nowhere at all, pulling it from what seemed like just the air and the Earth, I flashed to SKJ for just a second, long enough to send out a blast and destroy that burnt skull, blasting it to atoms.

Unable to do anything more, my transformation fell through and I lay on the ground for a very long time, rejoicing at long last in my victory.

>>>

So the alien is dead…and this story is FAR from over! (Laughs evilly) There is still one more chapter to go and then…PART THREE! (More evil laughter.)

Please review.


	14. Beyond

Yay! Another chapter is finally here, and it's the conclusion of Part 2! It seems that after defeating the alien, our hero has some second thoughts about what he has to do. This chapter is another of those crazy, very dark and dramatic chapters. Oh, and if you remember the two boys way back 5 chapters ago that were based partly on Trunks and Goten, well, they are coming back…in a way…

Aw, just read it! Thanks to my reviewer:

trunks and goten – Yep, ding dong the alien is dead…but is Jake really happy with himself? (dun dun duuuuuuunnnn) ! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this…

>>>

**Chapter 7: December 4, 2002 – Beyond**

When I finally awoke, I didn't first remember all that had happened. It was like I was still out cold or something, and sleeping, or something, because everywhere I looked I saw things that were just so surreal.

I sat up, feeling as if I had been run over by a sizeable train, or maybe a whole planet or two, and I was bleeding from everywhere I thought I could and even some places I thought I couldn't. I heard lots of noise, too, frantic shouts, sirens, and large crashes of metal and concrete falling down. There were huge craters in the ground and anything that wasn't completely destroyed was something close to it and on fire.

Standing up, I looked down at my shredded clothes and shredded skin and wondered what had happened, holding my head since it hurt so bad. I took a few steps forward and heard a soft _crunch_, looking down I saw a burnt newspaper that someone must have died on because it was bloody…and in an instant it all hit me.

I could suddenly see the entire history of my life flashing in a second before me, and I remembered it all. I remembered my childhood, my happiness and sadness, and then…the great change; the Dragonballs and the Voice and the Kalltorraiya-jin life and destiny; the aliens, the attack, the killing and the transformation. The green. The fight and the battle – the war… The hard-won victory… I looked down to see myself not as what I used to be but what I had become. I was beat up like a fierce fighter, not a plain human, and I still had my tail.

But my entire circumstances in that moment, that particular moment seemed just so horridly familiar and I couldn't help but realize exactly why that was.

It was just like that dream I had!

I remembered it like it was just a moment ago; the sights of dirt and the blood, the burnt and broken buildings and thousands of dead people lying around; the sounds of screaming, of sirens, of death and destruction; the newspaper, under my foot, black with dirty footprints and stained with blood.

Right now was just like that dream that I had had of what would have happened if I had failed. The only thing that was different was the date on the newspaper: December 4th and not December 3rd.

But it couldn't be! It wasn't supposed to be this way, I had won the fight but everyone around was still dead or dying. It didn't matter a bit that I had beaten the alien, blown him to bits, the end result was still just as I had foreseen it.

I stood, like a piece of broken stone, trying to understand why I had won and yet lost so much. My family and my friends were still dead, and I was still alone and ever so confused. I stood, and didn't speak, as I heard footsteps – running footsteps – coming toward me. It was a news-crew, a man with a microphone and a woman with a camera and some sound equipment; behind them, their van, with its broadcasting antenna pointed toward the smoke-filled sky. The logo, emblazoned happily on the side, reading 'Channel 12: Your World, Your News' it was the same one that had first reported on the invasion just a couple days ago; the man holding the microphone and asking me questions that I had no answer to looked just like the reporter who had been killed, he might have even been his brother.

Only now did I realize the irony of my situation. It was just the same thing as had happened before! It was the Channel 12 news team, the man with the microphone and the desolate landscape. The only thing different this time was that instead of questioning aliens who would kill millions, they were questioning me…who had…also…killed…

This difference, did it even exist? Was I really so different? We were both aliens with powers that did not belong on this world, powers that had never been seen before and might never be seen again. Looking around, I knew half the craters were made by my own blasts, half the crushed buildings broken by my own Ki.

Half the bodies…were my fault.

I didn't have to do it this way. I could have lured the aliens off of the planet and fought out in space, as I knew I could with my transformation. It would have spared the planet, spared all these lives. Spared the children. I just wasn't thinking. I just wanted everyone in the school and the city I grew up in to see me for what I had become. I wanted everyone to know that I wasn't a freak but a savior. But I had not done that, I had to stay here where the intense battle had gotten them all killed.

"…so now that you have saved the world and possibly the universe, what is going to be your next course of action?" said the reporter.

"I-I…," I tried to speak but couldn't.

I looked up, into the camera, saw the red blinking light indicating that it was picking up my image and transmitting it to the van, which was transmitting it the station, and sending my image across the world. Possibly millions of humans were looking onto my blood-stained face right now, looking onto me as he who had freed them from certain doom at the hands of the evil aliens. I wanted to tell them that it was all going to be okay, that they could tuck their children in bed tonight and not fear for their lives like they had done before. But I couldn't speak.

_What am I doing! _I thought frantically. _I'm NOT the savior of the Earth! I'm just…I'm just a boy…_

"I-I'm sorry…," was all I could get out, and I staggered off, pushing the reporter aside and moving away.

"But you saved the world! You're the hero!" he called after me.

"Don't call me that!" I screamed, starting to cry as I broke into a run.

_I'm not a hero! I didn't do anything!_

I just kept on running, barely able to avoid running into a few cops standing by in case of looters, almost falling over a crater in what had once been a beautiful grassy field, almost crashing into a pair of paramedics placing a body onto a stretcher. I ran on and on, not able to stop, dodging the living and the dead, and not caring about any of it. I stopped only when I saw something that caught my eye.

Where am I? The elementary school?

What was left of it anyway, which wasn't much to say for all the crushed and scorched classrooms, and the dead children at my feet.

I bent down, crying, looking into the blank eyes of two young boys. They were the ones that had been next door to me, the ones that had run off in fear when they saw me practicing using my Ki in the backyard. I could see what had happened, through the mess and the gore, how the younger boy lay on the ground, his black hair covered in blood and how the older boy lay on top of him, his arms cradling him, and his once crystal blue eyes clouded over, both their faces marked with fear. His last act was to throw himself on his younger friend to try and shield him from the fiery death that claimed them both.

I reached down, wanting to hold them both even in their death, only managing to wipe the blood from their faces with a scrap of clothing that I tore from me. I ran my fingers through their hair, their soft, beautiful hair, and wished fervently that I could see their eyes as they are supposed to be, sparkling and full of life.

I had failed them too, and I couldn't take it any longer – not one second longer.

I stood up, screaming, filling the air with my tortured screams to add to those of the dying and those left behind all across the world I had helped destroy. I took to the air, flying as fast as I could, flying to what remained of my house, trying not to see more dead children around me as I pulled new clothes out of the wreckage, removed my burnt and bloodstained clothed and put on the new ones. The clean clothes on my dirty and bloody body didn't make sense, but little did right now, and I could not allow myself to think, only to act.

Flying up into the air I recalled what had been spoken to me in those last moments of the fight, that there was another, that I had won the battle but the last of the war was yet to come. I wasn't strong enough to spare the world so much pain, but it would be different the next time. I had to do it right the next time, and I knew somehow that I needed to be more powerful.

Much more powerful.

Feeling myself transform into super Kalltorraiya-jin, I let out all my power, screaming out into the cold reaches of space, not needing to breathe, out as far as I could and as fast as I could. I left the broken world of my birth and my semi-death behind, far behind, and set out for more training.

I would not let myself fail like that again. I would not let so many children die like that again. If there was to be another fight, another battle, another facet of my ever-changing destiny, I was going to do it right.

Millions of miles past the Earth, somewhere between the red planet Mars and even further, where I was surrounded by asteroids the size of cities, where I could see the massive gas giant Jupiter a half inch wide in the distance, with its four largest moons, as off-white dots, I found my training ground, where I would remain for years.

There was a higher level, a higher power that I had to attain, and I would never, never quit until I was there. The greatest fight was going to be soon upon me, and I had to be ready for it; I was going to ascend, or die in the attempt.

>>>

So that's the end of part two, and it seems that there may be much more to come…and, well, it's called part three! Anyway, I just want you all to appreciate the little "gas giant Jupiter a half inch wide in the distance" thing, because it took me an hour and a half of careful calculations to determine how big Jupiter would appear to someone floating in the asteroid belt. They went something like this:

I had a picture of part of Saturn in a magazine, which, using a formula from geometry, I found was 35 cm in diameter, at a distance of, according to the caption, 13 million kilometers. I then divided it by the number of times Jupiter is larger then Saturn to determine the size Jupiter would appear from the same distance, and then converted it to inches. After that, I took the average distance of the asteroid belt to Jupiter, in miles, and took the distance of 13 million kilometers, converted then to miles, and divided them to get a factor by which I divided the number of inches Jupiter would appear at 13 million kilometers - converted to miles - to get a final answer…which was 0.52 inches…whew…

Please review!


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